Strangled Girl’s Mother Sues Boy, His Mother and Landlady : Complaint: The wrongful death action says Crystal Cooper and Olga Kaczmar ‘failed to exercise reasonable care to control’ Curtis Cooper.

The mother of Sara Nan Hodges, the 7-year-old Newhall girl who was strangled by a 14-year-old neighbor last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the boy, his mother and the woman who owned the house where they lived.

The complaint filed by Linda Hodges on March 8 in San Fernando Superior Court seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

It says Crystal Cooper should have known that her son, Curtis, was violent and that she failed to prevent him from harming others.

The suit also says Cooper and their landlady, Olga Kaczmar, “failed to exercise reasonable care to control said minor from engaging in such conduct, thereby proximately causing the death of Sara Nan Hodges . . .,” the complaint states.

Cooper was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to the crime, but under juvenile sentencing guidelines the boy will be released from custody when he reaches age 25.

But Linda Hodges said Thursday that her decision to file suit does not reflect personal animosity toward the boy, Curtis Cooper; his mother, Crystal Cooper; or their landlady, Olga Kaczmar.

Hodges said her lawyer, C. Ray Carlson, advised her that Kaczmar’s homeowner’s insurance would pay any award granted to her.

“I wouldn’t ever take a cent from Olga personally,” Hodges said. “I was told it wouldn’t hurt anybody but the insurance company.”

A response to the complaint by the defendants has not been filed, and their attorneys could not be reached for comment.

Cooper sexually molested and strangled his 7-year-old neighbor last March, then stuffed her body between the wall and the headboard of his water bed.

The murder occurred less than two months after Cooper moved to Newhall from Florida, where the boy had been living with his father and had recently been arrested for a string of petty thefts and burglaries.

Crystal Cooper rented a room from Kaczmar, who lived down the street from Sara’s family.

When Curtis arrived from Florida, Kaczmar agreed to let the adolescent boy move in.

But Hodges said she does not blame Kaczmar or Crystal Cooper for failing to anticipate the crime.

“Neither his mother nor Olga had him around that long,” she said. “There are no fingers to point.”