Government and Little Girl Pay the Price : * The County’s Inattention to Mountain Lion Threat Wound Up Costing Both Dearly

With her gentle countenance, her wavy locks and her hat, 10-year-old Laura Small of El Toro is an unlikely symbol for the consequences of negligent government. But because a jury has just awarded her more than $2 million, Orange County now must reckon with the high cost of negligence--its failure to move quickly enough to warn the public in 1986 when it was presented with warnings from park rangers about “unusual” mountain lion sightings.

On March 23, 1986, a five-week trial involving hundreds of exhibits surely must have been the furthest thing from Laura’s mind as she looked for tadpoles with her mother in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park east of San Juan Capistrano. As she was looking, a cougar jumped from a bush, grabbed Laura’s head, and was driven away only by the arrival of a hiker, who swung a stick at the cat. The trauma left the girl partially paralyzed, blinded in one eye and physically and emotionally scarred.

In court testimony these recent weeks, the public has had the opportunity to see some flawed communications that took place within the county parks system. The county, faced with a contention that it was negligent because it knew about mountain lions in Caspers Park, endeavored to portray such an attack as an unlikelihood. But jurors didn’t buy that; they were persuaded by the testimony of two rangers who said they had raised concerns about the sightings and had actually called a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game to determine what should be done.

Perhaps the decisive moment in the trial came when a senior park ranger testified that the possibility of posting warning signs was even discussed, as was a meeting with state authorities. But the attack occurred before the matter was acted upon.

It is possible that this jury ruling may invigorate the old debate about whether proposals to “thin out” cougars with controlled hunts should be instituted. Proposition 117, passed in June, 1990, banned the hunting of mountain lions, except in cases where cattle have been attacked repeatedly. But according to Paul Beier, a researcher who has studied Orange County mountain lions, the number of local lions is stable--and there are predictions that suburban development will mean that fewer of them will survive in Orange County.

The real issue here is county responsiveness to a perceived threat. In addition to the suffering caused a little girl, the failure to adequately warn the public now looks like a $2-million mistake.