Library Fire Figure Is Ill; Trial of Suits Moved Ahead

Harry Peak is dying. The man who was jailed briefly as the chief suspect in the 1986 arson fire that ravaged the city’s Central Library has at best about six months to live, according to court documents.

Peak’s terminal illness has prompted an agreement between his attorney and the city to speed up the trial of Peak’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging false imprisonment and the city’s cross-complaint against him.

In an affidavit, Peak’s doctor, Bruce Lloyd, said his 32-year-old patient suffers from, “among other things, severe hepatitis . . . marked enlargement of the liver and spleen with severe jaundice. . . . There is a substantial medical doubt that he will survive beyond six months.”

“We’re going to move as swiftly as possible, to try it (the suit) as swiftly as possible,” said Peak’s attorney, Leonard J. Martinet, who said he had only recently learned of his client’s terminal illness.

When Peak was arrested in February, 1987, investigators announced they were “convinced” he had set the fire that gutted the landmark main library and disrupted citywide library services for years.

He was released three days later, after prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge him. (Peak was never a suspect in a smaller arson blaze five months later.)

In 1988, Peak sued the city for $15 million for false imprisonment, slander, negligence, emotional distress, and for unspecified amounts for invasion of privacy, assault and battery.

The city, still persuaded that Peak was their man, took the rare step of countersuing for even more: $23.6 million--the cost of restoration and storage, and the price of every book damaged by flames and every gallon of water used to put them out.

Unlike a criminal trial, nine of 12 jurors can decide liability in a civil case, basing their vote on a preponderance of evidence, rather than the unanimous verdict “beyond a reasonable doubt” required of all 12 jurors in criminal cases.

Last week, a Superior Court judge granted a motion to expedite the trial, and set it for Sept. 12.

Assistant City Atty. Blanca Hadar, with the city’s civil liability section, said her office did not oppose the motion. Bringing forward the trial date for Peak’s suit means that the city’s cross-complaint is simultaneously advanced, she said, and will probably be heard at the same time.

Martinet said Peak is “hopeful they’ll dismiss their cross-complaint and settle.”

“They’ve got nothing against him whatsoever,” he added.

Last year, Martinet said that his client, an aspiring actor, had been “dragged through the wringer” since his arrest. After losing jobs when employers recognized his name, Martinet added, Peak moved to Palm Springs.

Peak’s only mistake, said his lawyer and acquaintances, was in the variety of conflicting stories he told to friends and investigators about where he was and what he was doing when fire raced through the 60-year-old building.

Lloyd, who has been Peak’s doctor for about four months, said in his June 10 affidavit:

“Worry over the publicity which may result from knowledge of his condition is causing Peak tremendous stress and anxiety, resulting in a further rapid deterioration of his condition.”

Martinet, in his own statement, asked to have matters regarding Peak’s health kept confidential, but no formal motion was made to have that done.