Wachs Wants City to Defend Rescuer in Lawsuit

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs said Monday that he will seek to have the city provide the legal defense for a Lancaster carpenter who is being sued as a result of his efforts to help three people escape from an overturned car last January.

Wachs said he will introduce a City Council motion today to have the city defend Jim Campbell, 31, who joined with a city police motorcycle officer Jan. 30 to aid a pregnant woman, her husband and a teen-age cousin.

The councilman also said he would ask state legislators to extend to ordinary citizens the protection granted under a “Good Samaritan” law--which now protects doctors, nurses and emergency personnel from lawsuits.

“Government should stand by its citizens when they act in a responsible way like this man did,” Wachs said.

Campbell and the officer, Loran Dale Turner, have been sued by the teen-age cousin whom they helped from the car. The cousin, Anzelma Sanchez-Sianez, 17, was struck by an oncoming car and suffered a ruptured spleen, according to her attorney, Paul Jay Bershin.

In the lawsuit, filed Sept. 25, she contends that Campbell put her in “an unsafe place” after helping her from the car and that Turner “failed to put up a flare pattern” to warn other vehicles.

The cousin also sued the driver of the car in which she was riding. The initial accident occurred as Ricardo Macias-Garcia was driving his wife, Norma, to the hospital to deliver a child. The couple survived the crash, as did their unborn child.

Contacted Monday afternoon, Bershin declined to comment on Wachs’ actions.

Wachs warned that the city’s failure to defend Campbell would encourage “people to stand by and watch” during an emergency. “I don’t want to see L.A. become another New York,” he said. “I don’t want to see people idly stand by while others die in the streets.”

The councilman said he did not foresee major objections among council members despite worries about the city’s budget. The city attorney’s office, however, has informed Wachs that the city could only use public funds to aid Campbell if the council determines that the move is for “the public good.”

That requirement will not be an obstacle, Wachs said. “You can’t have much of a Police Department if you don’t have citizens willing to help,” he said. “There’s no price you can put on that.”

Wachs said he has had no contact with state legislators on sponsoring an amendment to California’s “Good Samaritan” law. But he added that he would not be surprised to see opposition from trial lawyers.

Campbell had not asked for legal help, Wachs emphasized. Much of that groundwork was laid by Turner, who told the councilman that Campbell’s “day-to-day” existence as a carpenter might make hiring a lawyer an expensive proposition.

Campbell said Monday that he had contacted a lawyer after being notified last spring that he would be sued but had not “followed through since then.”

Welcoming Wachs’ offer of a city-paid legal defense, Campbell agreed with the councilman that he might have second thoughts about joining in future rescues if he knew he might be sued again.

“Why would anyone want to stop and help in that kind of situation?” he asked.