Girl Sues Police, Claiming Helicopter Spooked Horse

A Costa Mesa cheerleader who left the pep squad after a fall from a horse has sued the Costa Mesa Police Department for $1 million for allegedly spooking her horse with an unsafe helicopter maneuver.

Renee F. Gardner, 15, and her father, Charles S. Gardner, said in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court that a police helicopter “buzzed” her, causing her to fall off her horse and injure her knee as she was riding in the Fairview Park Bluffs area near the Santa Ana River. The accident occurred June 16, 1986.

On Monday, the girl’s attorney said her injury prompted her to leave the pep squad. However, a spokeswoman at Costa Mesa High School said Gardner also was removed from the pep squad for failing to keep a 2.8 grade-point average.

In addition to the city and Police Department, defendants include the estate of John (Mike) Libolt, who died in a March 10 midair collision of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach police helicopters. Libolt was one of two Costa Mesa officers killed in the crash; a civilian observer was also killed.

Costa Mesa Police Capt. Thomas Lazar defended the department’s practice of so-called auto-rotation descents--descents without power--one of the maneuvers challenged in the suit as unsafe.

“The practice and the ability to do auto-rotation descents is probably what saved the two pilots from Newport Beach,” Lazar said.

But Joseph P. DiVincenzo, the girl’s attorney, said that at the time the city allowed the public to ride horses in roughly the same area where police helicopters practice maneuvers.

“It’s a dangerous usage,” DiVincenzo said.

The area was originally chosen because it is unpopulated and because updrafts from the river bank aid in helicopter training.

After the June incident was reported, training procedures and flying areas were changed somewhat, Lazar said. Pilots now are instructed to conduct fewer maneuvers and to carefully examine the area beforehand.

A claim filed on behalf of the teen-age girl, which sought $500 in medical bills and $100,000 in damages, was rejected by the City Council last November.

Other defendants include Lt. David Brooks, who is in charge of the department’s helicopter program; Sgt. Richard J. Bell; pilot Randall Nutt and Lazar.