Claim Alleges Police Negligent in Man’s Fatal Beating by Wife

Five sons of a Tujunga man killed by his wife in an unusual domestic violence case have filed a negligence claim against the city saying police officers failed to check on the victim when called to the couple’s home before the slaying.

The claim was filed in the death of Thomas Chapman, 52, who was beaten to death June 9 by his wife, Michelle Chapman. She has pleaded no contest to manslaughter and is to be sentenced in February. A no-contest plea is the legal equivalent of a guilty plea for criminal court purposes.

The case drew public attention because the wife was the aggressor and the husband a passive victim.

According to police and neighbors, an angry and upset Michelle Chapman called police two hours before the killing. Two officers went to the apartment building and spoke to the woman outside. They did not attempt to see her husband, who was inside the apartment. Neighbors said they heard Michelle Chapman tell the officers that she might hurt her husband if the officers did not take her to jail.

The officers left after determining there was no imminent danger and advising Michelle Chapman to sleep at a friend’s house. Authorities said she later beat her husband to death with a liquor bottle.

Michael, Shawn, Timothy, Matthew and Mark Chapman, all adult sons of the victim from an earlier marriage, filed the claim seeking more than $10,000 in damages for negligence.

The claim alleges that the two unnamed officers who handled the call were improperly trained and supervised and caused the death by not checking on Tom Chapman’s welfare or separating the couple.

“Had the police taken steps to investigate they would have removed either Mr. Chapman or Mrs. Chapman from the home and Mr. Chapman would not have died,” the claim says.

James A. Frieden, the attorney who filed the claim, said the officers used a double standard in not checking on Thomas Chapman because he was a man.

“If it had been a man who called them, they would have put him in the clink,” Frieden said. “But because she was a woman, they assumed he could defend himself.”

Police spokesman Bill Frio said the department would not comment on cases involving litigation. The claim is a precursor to a lawsuit that may be filed against the city if it does not respond to the claim within six months.

Michael Chapman, 34, said in an interview that the officers should have realized that his stepmother was violent.

“Here was this lunatic woman running around and they don’t even check on my dad,” he said. “I am really angry about this. The way they handled it was absurd. I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again to anybody else.”