SAN CLEMENTE : Negligence Rejected in Death of Marine

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that San Clemente police and paramedics were not negligent in the death of a Marine lieutenant who assaulted a police officer and then was fatally stabbed by a bystander.

“It’s a tragic case, there’s no doubt about it,” said Judge Donald E. Smallwood about the death of Marine Lt. Harry H. Summerfield. “He died under circumstances that raise questions that in my mind will never be answered.”

Summerfield’s wife had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and was seeking more than $7 million in damages. She claimed that a police officer improperly solicited a bystander’s help and that paramedics failed to properly treat her husband after he was stabbed.

On March 23, 1986, Summerfield, a 23-year-old Naval Academy graduate, was being investigated as a prowler when he clubbed Police Officer Allen Harry over the head with a tire iron in an attempt to escape arrest, police alleged. A bystander, who was also a Marine, helped the injured officer chase Summerfield and then stabbed him in the chest during a scuffle.

Guy A. Ricciardulli, the attorney for Summerfield’s wife, made issue of a 45-minute time lag between the time paramedics arrived and the time Summerfield was taken to a hospital. He contended that paramedics ignored Summerfield while they attended to Officer Harry’s less-severe wounds.

Ricciardulli also presented a witness who testified that Jonathan Alcorn, the bystander with the knife, had told him that he was not threatened by Summerfield but had stabbed him because he thought that’s what the officer wanted him to do. At the time of the incident, Alcorn told investigators that he stabbed Summerfield in self-defense.

But Judge Smallwood rejected the plaintiff’s arguments, saying that there was not enough evidence to support the negligence claims.

“There isn’t any instant replay like on Sunday football . . . to view the final moments of this tragedy,” Smallwood said. “The court does not really know what occurred in those final minutes.”

He said that Summerfield “did not deserve to die,” but that the agents of San Clemente “acted in an objectively reasonable manner” and that “Lt. Summerfield’s actions precipitated” the incident.