The Region - News from Sept. 10, 1987

A Glendale Superior Court judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Glendale by the mother of a 28-year-old Pasadena computer operator, Van Kenneth Leary Jr., who died in police custody six years ago. In dismissing the suit, Judge Joseph R. Kalin cited a 1963 state government code that shields public agencies from liability for the injury or death of prisoners. The trial of the case had gone on for four days before Scott Howard, senior assistant attorney for Glendale, called attention to the statute. Kalin chided Howard for not bringing up the issue sooner, but Howard said he learned of the statute only last week.