Police Exonerated in Chase Fatalities Suit

An Orange County jury on Thursday found that Costa Mesa police officers were not negligent in a high-speed chase four years ago in which a fleeing driver crashed into a Volkswagen, killing two youths.

“It was not an easy decision, but we believe the officers behaved responsibly, under the circumstances,” said Jerry Kelly of Costa Mesa, one of the jurors.

It was the second time this year that the police have been exonerated in civil lawsuits over high-speed chases in Orange County that resulted in death or injury.

In the Costa Mesa case, the family of 17-year-old Roy Williamson, a passenger in the Volkswagen, claimed that police should have stopped the chase which resulted in the accident on Dec. 12, 1984.

The driver being chased, Ruben M. Valle, 21 at the time, was convicted of second-degree murder in the incident in 1986, and is serving a sentence of 30 years to life in prison.

Police began the chase near the 2500 block of Harbor Boulevard after they spotted Valle driving recklessly in a van they later learned had been stolen.

Witnesses said Valle’s van reached speeds of 85 m.p.h. and that police in three patrol cars and one unmarked car chased him at speeds up to 65 m.p.h.

Four minutes after the chase began, Valle’s van crashed into the Volkswagen driven by 17-year-old William Deering on 19th Street near Placentia Avenue. Deering and Williamson were pulling out of a doughnut shop and did not see the van, which ran a stop sign and swerved into a side lane to avoid a long line of traffic.

High-speed chases by police have resulted in several tragedies in the county in recent years.

In three cases pending in Orange County Superior Court, prosecutors are seeking murder convictions against defendants who led police on high-speed chases that resulted in deaths. The most widely publicized of these involved three people killed by a driver being chased by a Costa Mesa police helicopter last year.

In the past, prosecutors had sought vehicular manslaughter charges against such drivers. But a state Supreme Court ruling five years ago encouraged prosecutors to pursue more serious, second-degree murder convictions.

Valle, from Santa Ana, was the first defendant in Orange County to be convicted of murder in a traffic collision under the new court guidelines.

The families of both victims then filed civil lawsuits against the city of Costa Mesa and several of the police officers involved in the chase. Deering’s family eventually settled with the city for $5,000 after receiving a $200,000 settlement from their insurance company. Valle was an uninsured motorist, but the Deering family had coverage.

Williamson’s family was awarded $100,000 from Deering’s insurance company, according to city officials. But the family rejected a $35,000 settlement offer from the city before the trial.

Worth the Gamble

Bruce Lee Schechter, attorney for the Williamsons, said after the jury verdict Thursday that rejecting the money was worth the gamble.

“The family wanted the facts about what happened to come out; they wanted public attention drawn to these high-speed pursuits,” Schechter said. “That meant much more to them than the money.”

Schechter had not asked the jury for a specific amount in damages. His first job was to get nine jurors out of 12 to agree that the police had been negligent.

Instead, the jurors voted 9 to 3 in favor of the police after two days of deliberation.

Keith Williamson, the victim’s father, later thanked the jurors anyway.

“You didn’t see it our way, but I know it was a difficult decision for you,” he told one of the jurors who had voted for the police.

Family Frustrated

Williamson said the family had been frustrated for four years because they didn’t know what really happened that day. Many of the details came out at the two-week trial before Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, he said.

Still, Williamson said, those facts “only confirmed our earlier belief that the police were partly responsible for what happened.”

Schechter told the family later that the odds had been against them at the trial.

“This is not Los Angeles, it’s Orange County,” he said. “Orange County juries back their police departments.”

Don H. Zell, special counsel for the city of Costa Mesa for this case, said later that “what happened was tragic, but I’m happy for the police officers. They did a good job in this case.”

Schechter said he believes the jurors placed too much emphasis on a heavy metal music tape found in the Volkswagen. City lawyers contended that the youths were playing the music loudly and were not paying adequate attention to the traffic flow. Schechter argued there was no proof the music was even playing when the accident occurred, though a witness had heard the music coming from the Volkswagen shortly before the accident.

Zell countered that the Williamsons’ acceptance of insurance money from the Deerings implied to him that the Williamsons thought Deering should have been more alert.

Testimony Boomerangs

Zell said he was also upset that “testimony from these police officers which helped convict Mr. Valle was used against them at this civil trial. How do you get officers to come forth in a criminal case if their words are going to be thrown back at them like that?”

Thursday’s jury verdict was important to police, Zell said, because they need community support to do their job properly.

“It’s a tough job out there, and tough decisions have to be made,” he said.

Police agencies throughout the county were anxiously awaiting the verdict.

The Orange County Police Chiefs Assn. has issued general guidelines for high-speed chases. It states that a pursuit should be called off if the officers believe it presents a clear danger to other traffic.

“So many times it’s an individual decision,” said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson. In many cases, he said, the fleeing driver is more likely to hurt someone if police don’t chase him.

Olson said the sheriff’s policy is to allow no more than two police cars in a chase and to aid other police departments in chases only on request.

Lt. Robert Chavez, spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department, said the final decision must be the officers’.

“A high-speed chase in bright sunlight at noon is a much different situation than one at 6 p.m., in heavy traffic, with the fog rolling in,” Chavez said.