2 Sheriff’s Deputies Dropped from Mother’s Suit Over Daughter’s Death

Two of three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies accused of killing a Van Nuys woman have been dropped from a lawsuit filed by the dead woman’s mother, the attorney for the mother said Thursday.

Stephen Yagman said he filed documents that dismissed deputies Michael Turner and Robert Waters from the case on Tuesday, one day after a federal judge threatened to dismiss the lawsuit unless evidence was presented to support the allegations within 90 days.

Mary Postma of Van Nuys filed suit March 30 alleging that Turner, Waters and Robert Mallon killed her daughter, whose body was discovered Jan. 15 in a parking lot in the 8100 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys.

The victim, Catherine Braley, 26, was found strangled and beaten the morning after she had been drinking with the deputies in a Van Nuys bar. The deputies have denied involvement in the killing, and police repeatedly have said the deputies are not suspects.

The suits against the two deputies can be refiled before next January, when the statute of limitations expires one year after the crime.

“Right now we only have evidence that points to Mallon,” Yagman said.

The suit alleges that Braley, a department store cashier, left a bar called The Headhunter with the deputies the evening of Jan. 14 and that the deputies killed Braley after she refused to have sex with them. Her body was mutilated in an effort to confuse investigators, the suit alleges.

In court documents filed with the suit, Mallon acknowledged leaving the bar with Braley about 11:30 p.m., having consensual sex with her and then dropping her off in the 8000 block of Langdon Avenue, a block from where her body was found.

The suit was filed under the federal Civil Rights Act and seeks $10 million in damages.