Court Reverses a $3.5-Million Jury Verdict Against Newport

A California appeals court Thursday reversed a $3.5-million decision against the city of Newport Beach awarded to a man who claimed that police failed to mount a search for his abducted daughter 12 years ago.

The decision stems from a 1988 court case in which a jury found that the city and Police Sgt. Charles Olmstead, who was watch commander the night of the alleged abduction, were liable in the disappearance of Lisa Marie Scozari. The child had been taken from her father’s custody by her mother in 1979.

The city sought a new trial, claiming that there was evidence of misconduct by the jury in reaching the verdict and that officers were shielded against liability for their decisions on how to handle an investigation. A Superior Court Judge rejected those arguments.

The city, supported by friend-of-the-court briefs from several other cities, appealed the judge’s ruling, and the 4th District Court of Appeal on Thursday reversed the judgment.

“We agree there was no duty owed plaintiffs by Olmstead or City and no basis for holding Olmstead or City liable. . . ,” the decision reads.

City and police officials said they had not yet seen the decision but were pleased with the outcome.

“If we had committed an error--and we don’t think we did--it was not deliberate or malicious, certainly not what the trial court said it was worth,” said City Manager Robert L. Wynn. “We are self-insured and that money would have had to come out of our general fund budget. . . . Naturally we think that in this case justice has been done.”

Olmstead, who is still on the Newport Beach police force, could not be reached for comment.

Arthur A. Scozari, a retired Florida lawyer who acted as his own attorney during the trial, could not be reached for comment. After the 1988 jury verdict, Scozari indicated he would use the award money to search for his daughter Lisa Marie, now 14, or her mother, Marie Anne Kennedy.

Neither Kennedy nor Lisa Marie could be reached for comment.

Evidence cited by the appeals court attests to a tangled and bitter custody dispute between Scozari and Kennedy, who never married but engaged in a number of fights over the child when all three lived in Florida.

In 1978, according to court records, Scozari moved to California with the child without telling Kennedy. The following year, Kennedy, disguised in a wig and sunglasses and aided by a private investigator, took her daughter from the Newport Beach home of Scozari’s uncle.

Scozari claimed that when he reported the abduction to police they failed to try to locate the child, in part he charged, because the private investigator, John Saporito, was a former police officer who was acquainted with officers in Newport Beach.

However, Olmstead said that Saporito had called shortly after Scozari’s report to explain that the alleged abduction was a domestic dispute and later sent police copies of a restraining order from a Florida judge indicating that the mother had custody of the child pending a court hearing.

A few of the original defendants in the suit, including Saporito and friends of Kennedy who helped her hide the child, settled with Scozari for $350,000 before 1988 trial.