The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : Keeping Hope Alive for Long Distance Justice

Scott Freeman’s current band is called Factory of Angst, but it seems out of character.

Freeman, 21, who sings and plays various instruments, bubbled with youthful enthusiasm talking about his music, art, friends and hikes in the undeveloped areas near his home in West Hills.

With his broad smile, long black ponytail and T-shirt that depicts the “Cat in the Hat” Dr. Seuss character, he looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

But at least once every day, Freeman flashes back to the night of Aug. 22, 1992. He sees the car crossing the center divider of the Ventura Freeway, coming head-on toward the Volkswagen bug in which he is riding in the back seat. He hears the shattering of glass and twisting of metal. He sees one of his best friends, Anthony Moya, lying on the pavement, dying.

“It takes up a lot of my days, I think of it so much,” said Freeman, who suffered a hand injury in the accident. Another passenger was treated at a hospital and released.

Moya, who lived with his parents in Simi Valley, had been driving. He was pronounced dead at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

“I think about Tony a lot. I can see his smile,” Freeman said.

“I think about the other man too, who was driving the other car. I can’t even say his name.”

It was Nasario Palacios, according to police reports, who crossed the center divider. He was not hurt in the accident and was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

The charge was later upped to vehicular manslaughter.

But Palacios skipped bail. Police believe he escaped to Mexico.

“It’s like I have this hatred toward him,” Freeman said. “I just wish it was he who had died and my friend was still alive.”

Police in Ventura County, where the accident took place, told Freeman that the chances of catching Palacios are good if the fugitive ever comes back into the country. “They told me that they end up catching these guys for something else they do wrong,” Freeman said.

Detective Art Zorrilla of the Los Angeles Police Department’s foreign prosecution unit said that if Palacios is arrested in Mexico, he could be tried there.

Zorrilla said the Mexican penal code “allows for the prosecution of a Mexican citizen in Mexico for a crime that happened anywhere in the world.”

Ventura County officials handling the case against Palacios do not have a specialized foreign prosecution unit. But Mexico recently made it easier for all police departments to file evidence in such cases, Zorrilla said. A centralized bureau has been opened in Mexico City, eliminating the need for filing in various individual districts.

The LAPD unit--which handles only major crimes, such as murder, rape and vehicular manslaughter--has brought about 45% of its cases to convictions.

Earlier this summer, evidence presented by the unit resulted in the arrest of a man in Honduras on charges that he had murdered his girlfriend in Van Nuys before fleeing. Trial is pending.

Freeman does not see himself as a vengeful man. But the prosecution of Palacios, if it ever occurs, would go a long way toward easing his daily pain.

“I had a dream,” Freeman said, “and in it I was at a concert of one of my favorite bands, Human Disease. It’s an ‘industrial’ band, very loud, but in my dream I don’t need earplugs because they are playing at just the right volume.

“And Tony is there and we are listening and I am just so happy. Then all of a sudden in my dream, I start crying, and Tony keeps asking me, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ ”

Freeman’s eyes moistened.

“I miss him a lot,” he said. “But I have to get on with my life.”