3 Deputies Killed Van Nuys Woman, Civil Suit Alleges

Three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were named Tuesday in a federal lawsuit as the killers who, the suit alleges, choked to death a 26-year-old Van Nuys woman last January after she refused to have sex with them.

The bludgeoned, disfigured body of Catherine M. Braley was discovered the morning of Jan. 15 in the 8100 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys, in bushes near the parking lot of a county crisis management center.

The homicide, under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, remains unsolved.

According to the lawsuit, the murder grew out of a day of heavy drinking by several dozen sheriff’s deputies at a Van Nuys bar that almost deteriorated into an orgy as the day wore on. One of the deputies named in the suit had been dating the victim, it was alleged.

The civil suit was filed under the federal Civil Rights Act by Los Angeles attorney Stephen Yagman and alleged that the victim’s constitutional rights were violated by excessive police violence. Yagman said some of his information for the suit came from the victim’s mother, who was interviewed by police detectives.

“We have explored every lead,” said a police spokesman, Cmdr. William Booth. “And we do not have a suspect. And certainly no members of any law enforcement group--including the Sheriff’s Department--are considered suspects in this case.”

A sheriff’s spokesman, Sgt. Bryan Williams, said: “We’re not commenting on the case. It is (the LAPD’s) case.”

The suit against the deputies was filed by the victim’s mother, Mary Postma, who is asking for $10 million in damages.

“This is one of the most grisly murders I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Yagman.

Undercover Work

Yagman said the deputies worked on the narcotics detail and, because of the undercover nature of their work, he has not been able to gain access to all of their names.

The suit names as defendants: Deputy Robert Waters, whom it said “dated Ms. Braley”; Deputy Robert Maylan or Mallen, and a deputy refered to only as Michael “Unknown.”

The sheriff’s chief spokesman, Capt. Dick Walls, said any information about deputies who work details such as narcotics is kept confidential because of their “sensitive undercover assignments.”

According to the suit, Braley, a checker at a Van Nuys Fedco store, went after work to the Hunter, a bar located in a commercial area about two blocks from her job. At the bar, the lawsuit charges, she found “30 to 40” sheriff’s deputies who had earlier attended the funeral of a fellow deputy killed in the line of duty.

“The deputies at the bar were drunk and routy (sic) and several of them had exposed (themselves) at the bar,” the lawsuit alleges.

‘Convinced’ Victim

At 12:05 a.m., on Jan. 15, the suit says, the three defendants allegedly “convinced” the victim to leave with them. Ten minutes later, the suit alleges, “residents heard awful screams” near the parking lot where the body was found.

The lawsuit then alleges that the following events occurred: deputies “left the bar . . . . with the intention of forcing her to have sex with all of them; at the parking lot, Ms. Braley refused,” and in an ensuing fight she “was murdered by application of a carotid chokehold (which is taught to sheriff’s deputies), and the defendants, all of whom were very drunk, panicked and attempted to cover up the cause of death. They then beat and mutilated Ms. Braley’s body and threw it from the car.”

A coroner’s autopsy report concluded that the victim, who stood 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds, died of both strangulation and from the force of a 30-pound cement block that was smashed against the left side of her face, the suit says. In addition, her body showed multiple stab wounds, and some of her clothes were missing.

An LAPD detective investigating the murder, Pat Anguiano of the Van Nuys Division, told a Times reporter shortly after the murder that Braley did not leave with the deputies.

In a second interview about three weeks ago, Anguiano said that Braley routinely drank at the bar and that it was his theory that she had befriended a stranger at the bar. Anguiano on Tuesday declined to comment on the case.

Times staff writer Michael Connelly contributed to this story.