The Region - News from Sept. 5, 1986

A Superior Court judge dismissed a suit by a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, who claimed inadequate training and constant exposure to drugs while making arrests caused him to shoot a Duarte woman during a phony raid on her home, killing her unborn child. Robert Armstrong Jr., convicted of second-degree murder in the 1982 shooting, claimed that exposure to PCP during repeated drug arrests led him to become physically and emotionally unstable, a condition he said his supervisors were aware of. Lawyers for the county, which paid $350,000 to DeLois Young and her family to settle a suit against the deputy, argued successfully that Armstrong should have brought up his concerns during his criminal trial, or should have sought workers’ compensation benefits, rather than suing the county. Judge Robert H. O’Brien dismissed the suit, but Armstrong’s attorney, Gary Leeman, said his client has filed a separate workers’ compensation claim.