SIMI VALLEY : Court Reverses ’92 Assault Conviction

The assault conviction of a 20-year-old man in a shooting outside a Simi Valley bar was reversed Tuesday by a state appeals court, which ruled that the trial judge did not adequately instruct the jury.

Dragan Terzeu was convicted in January, 1992, of firing shots in the parking lot of Cheers, a club on Los Angeles Avenue, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. According to court records, the incident occurred in August, 1991, when Terzeu got into a fight with another bar patron.

Terzeu fired several shots in the direction of his adversary, according to police testimony. Terzeu testified that he was only trying to scare the man.

In reversing the conviction, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele failed to give the jury a crucial instruction: that assault requires an attempt to apply physical force.

If the jury believed Terzeu’s assertion that he only intended to scare the other man, the case might have ended in acquittal, the appeals court ruled.

The appeals court said such an instruction is standard procedure in assault cases and noted that both the defense and prosecution had requested that the instruction be given, but said the record was unclear as to why it was not.

The ruling, written by Justice Kenneth R. Yegan, urged the judge to make a complete record of his decisions on jury instructions, “especially those decisions which affect the defendant’s constitutional rights.”