Experts Back Officers in Trial Over Fatal Crash

Two Los Angeles Police Department experts testified Thursday that Torrance police officers performed a thorough and impartial investigation of a fellow officer who had been drinking and driving before a 1984 traffic collision that killed a San Pedro teen-ager.

LAPD Sgt. Richard Studdard and Officer James Hunt, called as witnesses for the city of Torrance, said in Los Angeles Superior Court that Torrance officers were correct in concluding that Green was not drunk on the night of the accident and that the collision was caused by the speeding of Kelly Rastello, 19.

Defense Against Lawsuit

The testimony came as part of the Torrance Police Department’s defense against a lawsuit that charges that a drunken Green cut in front of Rastello, causing the accident, and that Torrance police covered up for their colleague. Rastello’s parents, John and Geraldine Rastello, filed the suit 12 days after he died in the crash.

Studdard, who has taught police officers nationwide how to perform sobriety tests, said his review of Torrance police reports convinced him that Green was not under the influence of alcohol.

Studdard said it was not unusual that Officer Daniel Metzger, a member of Torrance’s anti-drunk driving team, gave Green only an eye-gaze test and not a series of sobriety tests.

The alcohol gaze nystagmus test that Metzger performed is the most effective sobriety test because it measures involuntary movements of the eye and cannot be practiced or mastered like other field sobriety tests, Studdard told the jury.

Officer Metzger testified earlier that Green’s eyes showed minimal reaction to the gaze test, proving that he was sober. No blood-alcohol test was given.

Studdard also said it was not suspicious that Metzger and Green walked a block away from the crash scene to conduct the test, because they had been standing in an area where the sloping roadway and flashing police lights would have marred the test.

On cross-examination, Studdard conceded that he would have done at least one thing differently than Torrance police: offered Green a Breathalyzer test to clear up any doubts about his sobriety.

LAPD Officer Hunt, who trains police officers in accident investigation, took the stand next.

Actions by Torrance police that the Rastellos’ lawyers have called suspicious are all readily explainable, Hunt said. He testified: The first officers on the scene did not give Green a sobriety test because they were busy with other duties and waiting for the department’s expert, Metzger, to give the test. The watch commander on duty that night, Lt. Noel Cobbs, did not come to the scene of the crash because he was responsible for supervising activities at the police station. Torrance officers threw out their field notes, but so do most accident investigators. And the fact that two traffic investigators listed different points of impact for the crash showed that they felt there was nothing to hide, not that they were being deceitful.

“They did exactly what they should have done,” Hunt said repeatedly.

However, under cross-examination, Hunt conceded that in his own cases, he could not remember a single instance in which a blood-alcohol test was not ordered when a driver who admitted drinking was involved in a fatal collision.

Lawyers for Green won a victory Tuesday when Judge Abby Soven threw out an allegation in the lawsuit that Green helped to conceal his responsibility for the crash. Soven ruled that there was insufficient evidence to show that Green took part in any cover-up.

The jury must still decide claims of wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Green and a host of other allegations against the Torrance Police Department and eight other officers, including negligence, conspiracy and civil rights violations.