Local News in Brief : Magic Mountain Sued
A civil liberties group has filed a second lawsuit challenging security policies at Six Flags Magic Mountain, alleging that five Latinos were barred from the amusement park because of their ethnic background.
The suit seeks unspecified damages for the family of Joe Hernandez, a San Gabriel truck driver. It also asks that the Valencia amusement park be prohibited from searching patrons.
Park officials have repeatedly said the screening system is needed to weed out troublemakers and potential gang members.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Hernandez; his wife, Maria; his 16-year-old son Dennis, and two adult daughters, Sonia Hernandez and Susie Gongura.
The ACLU group charged in a suit April 18 that four Latinos from Hawthorne were unjustly accused of being gang members before security guards ordered them to leave park grounds on Easter Sunday, 1987.
According to the second suit, the Hernandez family, joined by cousins and several friends, tried to enter Magic Mountain on July 4, 1987.
An ACLU attorney said that a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was screening cars at the park entrance let Joe Hernandez’s car pass. But the deputy told a second car to pull over to an inspection area, where park security guards questioned and searched other family members, the attorney said. The family was then told to leave, the attorney said.
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