Grand Jury to Meet on Woman’s Slaying

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury will hold hearings on the murder of a Van Nuys woman whose mother has filed a lawsuit claiming that three sheriff’s deputies killed her daughter, according to court papers filed by police.

Catherine M. Braley, 26, was found slain in a parking lot in the 8100 block of Sepulveda Boulevard on the morning of Jan. 15. She had been beaten, strangled and mutilated. Los Angeles police have not made an arrest in the case and have repeatedly denied that deputies are suspects.

Three months after the murder, Braley’s mother, Mary Postma, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court that accused three deputies of killing her daughter when she refused to have sex with them after a night of drinking. The three deputies denied the allegations.

Postma later agreed to drop two deputies from the suit, but the third, Robert Mallon, who acknowledged having consensual sex with Braley the night before her body was discovered, remains a defendant. Mallon has said he did not kill Braley.

Postma’s attorney, Stephen Yagman, said Friday that Postma was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury on Thursday. Authorities confirmed that she was subpoenaed but would not say whether other subpoenas were distributed.

Carol Ann Hummer, an attorney representing the three deputies, said that none of them were subpoenaed by the grand jury and they are not involved in this latest turn in the investigation.

It is unclear why the grand jury is being used in the investigation. Police and the district attorney’s office also declined comment, but documents filed in the Postma lawsuit indicate that police are moving toward an arrest in the case. The documents, containing declarations of two detectives involved in the Braley investigation, were filed in the case by police to block Postma’s request for access to police records and evidence.