Charges in Death of Girl Urged

In what could be the state’s first prosecution under a law mandating that children younger than 4 be restrained in special car seats, the California Highway Patrol recommended Friday that manslaughter and child-endangerment charges be filed in the death of a 22-month-old girl.

Melissa Perez died Sept. 2 when a car carrying her and six others overturned on U.S. 101 in Oxnard, the CHP said.

The car, driven by her mother, Telma Ochaita of Canoga Park, appeared to be obeying the 55-m.p.h. speed limit but flipped on the freeway’s shoulder while moving from the middle to the right lane, the CHP said.

Melissa was seated on the lap of her father, Oscar Perez, 31, of Canoga Park and was thrown through the open sunroof of the 1985 Toyota Corolla, according to the CHP and a report by the Ventura County coroner.

Neither the driver nor the other passengers in the car were seriously injured. But, according to the coroner’s report, the girl was pinned under the vehicle and died of “traumatic head injuries.”

CHP spokesman Jim Utter said an 11-page investigative report recommended that the Ventura County district attorney file vehicular manslaughter and child endangerment charges.

The prosecutor’s office is expected to begin reviewing the CHP’s report next week. Don Grant, a senior deputy district attorney who screens felony recommendations, said it is unclear whether charges--if they are filed--would be against the mother, the father or both.

Penalties for conviction on the recommended charges range from a year in county jail to six years in prison, depending on whether they are filed as misdemeanors or felonies.

Officials of the state attorney general’s office, the CHP and the Department of Motor Vehicles said they know of no prosecutions under California’s car seat law, which took effect in January, 1983.

A Los Angeles County prosecutor filed similar manslaughter charges in September, 1990, in connection with the death of an infant in a Newhall accident, but the charges were dropped.

California Assistant Atty. Gen. Pete Holland, who supervises enforcement of the state’s Health, Education and Welfare Code, said such cases would be very difficult to prosecute.

“The jury would say, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ ” he said.