VENTURA : Self-Defense Ruled in Death of Kountz Son

A California Highway Patrol officer who shot and killed the son of a former Ventura mayor during a traffic stop five years ago was acting in self-defense, a Ventura County Superior Court jury has ruled.

The jury ruled Thursday in favor of then-rookie CHP Officer Brian Smith in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed against him by former Mayor Eugene Kountz, who served from 1973 to 1978, and his ex-wife, Aurora Kountz. The couple’s suit accused Smith, 29, of wrongfully and negligently killing their son, Raymond Kountz, 29.

Smith was giving a drunk-driving field test to Kountz on May 4, 1986, near Seaward Avenue and Harbor Boulevard in Ventura when Kountz broke away and ran south on Seaward.

Smith caught up with him a block away. In the ensuing scuffle, Kountz wrested away Smith’s aluminum nightstick, at which point Smith shot him.

While Smith testified that he fired after Kountz raised the stick overhead and advanced, witnesses testified that Smith fired before Kountz got up in a standing position, said John Johnson, attorney for the Kountz family.

The single bullet entered Kountz’s upper chest and pierced his lung, Johnson said. An investigation by the Ventura County district attorney’s office found no wrongdoing on the part of Smith, who remains with the CHP in Sacramento.

The jury found that Smith acted in self-defense, but also ruled that he was negligent in the incident. However, the jury ruled that because the unidentified negligence was not the legal cause of Kountz’s death, the Kountz family was not entitled to financial compensation, Johnson said.

The Kountzes might refile the suit on grounds of negligence, he said.