Family Bids Marine Goodby

An El Toro Marine who was killed in a fight outside a Fullerton bar was buried with full military honors Wednesday as his family angrily called for justice and disputed police reports that he died in a “fair fight.”

More than 60 people, including about 30 Marines in their dress blues, watched solemnly as the flag-draped coffin of Staff Sgt. Richard W. Bottjer was carried to the gravesite during a ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery. An honor guard fired a volley of 21 shots into the air to honor the dead Marine.

Julie Bottjer wept when she was handed a flag that had covered her son’s steel-gray coffin. A second flag was given Bottjer’s former wife, Sandy Pearson.

Bottjer, 30, died last Thursday of severe head injuries. Shortly before midnight Wednesday, he had been involved in a scuffle inside a Fullerton bar, which later turned into a brawl in a darkened pizza parlor parking lot across the street.

The career soldier, who joined the service in 1977 and had been stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for the past year, was pronounced brain dead at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton. Last Friday, Bottjer’s heart was implanted into a 26-year-old Huntington Beach man. It was the first heart transplant to be performed in Orange County.

No one has been arrested in Bottjer’s death, but police are questioning two Cal State Fullerton football players believed to have fought with Bottjer and another Marine, Lance Cpl. Thomas Duran.

At the Marine’s funeral, family members expressed anger and resentment over what they saw as lack of progress in the investigation and over statements by police and Deputy Dist. Atty. Melvin Jensen that Bottjer may have died in a “fair fight” that he himself may have started.

“My son is dead and nobody has been booked,” said Ralph Bottjer, who lives in St. James, N.Y., and works as a quality assurance officer for the Navy. “To me it is an unbelievable situation. I was quiet, but now that my son is buried, I feel I have to talk out.”

Saying he spoke for the entire family, the father disputed the idea that his son may have died in what was essentially an even fight: Bottjer and Duran against the two football players, identified as quarterback Carlos Siragusa, 21, and wide receiver John Gibbs, 22.

“I talked to Duran and asked him how many people were involved. He said at least four (on the other side) but it felt like 20,” he said. “And here the district attorney is saying it was a fair fight and all. It sounds to me like the district attorney is acting more like the defense attorney.

“I just don’t understand how a serious crime has been committed and nothing has happened. I am really mad about this. They are treating it very nonchalantly.”

Jensen, the deputy district attorney handling the case, said he understood the family’s pain and stressed that no decision on whether to file charges had been made.

“I can understand that they are upset,” said Jensen. “They just lost their son. It is understandable.”

Jensen said he would decide on possible charges as soon as Fullerton police completed their investigation.

“They are taking their time interviewing all of the witnesses and getting all the facts,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to rush them, especially in a case like this that has generated so much press.”

The family also questioned why more had not been made of the fact that Gibbs, the wide receiver, could be a karate specialist. Gibbs is listed in the university’s football player guide as holding a black belt.

“This guy has a black belt,” said Mildred Bottjer, a sister-in-law who lives in Ontario. “The police say it was a fair fight because no weapons were involved. But aren’t his fists considered deadly weapons?”

A Fullerton police spokesman said earlier that it had not been confirmed that Gibbs was indeed a martial arts expert. And he noted that Marines also are specially trained in hand-to-hand combat.

“We are not looking for revenge,” Mildred Bottjer said. “We are looking for justice.”

Fullerton Police Capt. Donald Bankhead said that the investigation probably would be completed Friday and that the district attorney’s office could be expected to issue its findings early next week.

Bankhead said as many as 15 witnesses had been questioned in the case and some were being re-interviewed to make sure that all ground had been covered.

One of those witnesses, who knows the Cal State Fullerton football players and who was at the bar the night Bottjer died, agreed to give an account of what happened on condition of anonymity. That account essentially has been substantiated by police investigators.

According to the witness, the scuffle started when the football players and some friends were moving through the crowd during a “Hot Legs” contest at Baxter’s, a popular bar on North State College Boulevard in Fullerton.

“Somebody stepped on this guy’s (Marine’s) foot,” the witness said. “He apologized (but) the guy pushed him. Words were exchanged. It became a pushing and shoving match.”

By the time bouncers arrived, the Marines and the Cal State students were in a pile on the floor, wrestling and swearing. A shirt was ripped off of one of the Cal State students. Everyone was kicked out of the club.

Warning From Manager

Outside, an assistant manager warned both groups that she didn’t want any fighting in the bar parking lot. At that point, the witness said, one of the Marines turned to the four Cal State Fullerton students and yelled: “I’ll kick your. . . . Why don’t you just follow me across the street.”

Six people--the two Marines, two football players and two friends--walked across the street and met in a pizza parlor parking lot. But according to the witness, only four people fought: the Marines and the two football players.

“The Marine guy who got killed took a swing at Johnny (Gibbs),” the witness said. “Johnny retaliated, took a swing and hit him. It wasn’t a kick, I know. He got hit once or twice and fell down. I am positive he hit his head. There was a big old lump. He just laid there.”

Then, the witness said, Gibbs joined the fight between Duran and Siragusa.

Contrary to some earlier reports that had four to six men beating and kicking Bottjer once he was on the ground, the witness said the Marine was only hit a few times and was left alone when he was on the ground.

“The guy that died got punched once or twice and hit the ground hard,” he said.

One investigator with access to police files said the witness’s account was “very close to what we’re finding out to be the situation.”

“It just seems to be a case of some guys mix it up in a bar and take it outside,” the investigator said. “Unfortunately someone got killed. I don’t think there is much more to it than that. It is an unfortunate situation.”

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.