Slain Woman’s Mother Talks to Grand Jury

The mother of a Van Nuys woman who was slain seven months ago, prompting a lawsuit that claims a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy killed her, testified Thursday at a closed Los Angeles County Grand Jury hearing on the unsolved killing, authorities said.

Mary Postma, whose daughter, Catherine M. Braley, 26, was found dead Jan. 15 in a parking lot, was questioned by the grand jury for about an hour. But neither Postma nor the district attorney’s office would disclose what she had been asked. Dean Voisson, a friend of Postma’s, was also questioned briefly, authorities said.

Grand jury hearings are closed because they are often part of ongoing investigations, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Healey, who is handling the Braley case. Authorities often use such hearings to question people who have declined to cooperate with investigators.

Paul L. Gabbert, an attorney who represented Postma at the hearing but was not allowed in the hearing room, said he believes that Postma was questioned about the activities of a possible suspect days after the slaying. Gabbert did not elaborate and authorities declined to name the suspect.

Stephen Yagman, who represents Postma in her $10-million U.S. District Court suit against Deputy Robert Mallon, said his client had stopped cooperating with Los Angeles police, who are investigating Braley’s murder. He claimed police were harassing Postma because of her lawsuit.

The suit, originally filed against three deputies but then changed to name only Mallon, alleges that after a night of drinking Mallon killed Braley and left her beaten, strangled and mutilated body on a parking lot in the 8100 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys.

Mallon, an undercover narcotics investigator, has acknowledged that he was with Braley and had consensual sex with her the night before her body was found. But he has repeatedly denied that he killed her. Los Angeles police have said he is not a suspect.