Suit Says LAPD Negligence Led to Rape of 13-Year-Old

The parents of a teen-age Sylmar girl are suing the city of Los Angeles, complaining that she was abducted, drugged and raped because police failed to notify them when she was released from custody after a trespassing arrest.

Norman D. James, an attorney representing the parents, said he expects to serve city officials with a copy of the lawsuit today. A spokesman for the city attorney’s office said he could not comment on the suit until the suit is reviewed.

Police Lt. George Rock of the West Valley Division said police investigated the girl’s allegations that she was abducted and sexually assaulted, but he did not know the outcome of that investigation.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last week, says that at about 12:30 p.m. Sept. 26, 1991, the girl, then 13, was detained by school security officers for being on the Reseda High School campus without authorization. The matter was reported to police, who took her to the West Valley station where she was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing and released at about 5 p.m. to an unknown person.

The parents claim in their suit that police released the girl to an unknown person who was not authorized by the parents to pick up their daughter.

James said there may have been no such person and that the girl may have been released on her own with other teen-age girls arrested that day, also for allegedly trespassing.

As a result, the suit says, the parents were unaware of the whereabouts of their daughter for six days after she was released by police. While she was missing, the girl was allegedly drugged, sexually assaulted and continues to suffer “great mental, physical and nervous pain,” according to the suit.

When police arrested the girl, they “assumed a duty of care” to “afford safety and security to the minor child in their custody,” the suit says. The parents claim that officers were negligent in releasing their daughter without notifying them and seeking their authorization.

The suit is seeking at least $25,000 in damages and unspecified amounts for medical and other expenses.

The parents filed a claim for damages against the city in March, but it was rejected in June by the City Council.