Family of Motorist Slain by MTA Officer Wins $3.5 Million

A Los Angeles jury on Thursday awarded $3.5 million to the widow and three young daughters of a motorist who was shot and killed during a traffic stop by a transit police officer, opening the door to further damages by finding that the officer acted with malice.

On a 9-3 vote, the Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found that Officer Richard DeMartino, on active duty with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, violated the civil rights of Alejandro Bodan, 24, when DeMartino shot him April 29, 1990.

The case was a high-profile one for transit authorities, who have faced harsh criticism about excessive force by transit officers.

Bodan, a Los Angeles marble installer who had been drinking heavily on the day of his death, was driving near Downtown Los Angeles with five teen-agers in the back of his pickup when DeMartino pulled him over, court records show.

DeMartino, a three-year veteran of the transit police, testified that Bodan had been driving erratically and that he ignored three commands to put his hands in plain view. The man also ignored a warning that DeMartino was about to shoot, the officer said.

Finally, he said, Bodan reached for something under the driver’s seat. Believing it might be a gun, DeMartino said, he shot the man twice.

But no gun was recovered, and accounts by other witnesses failed to square with the officer’s testimony. An officer trainee who was riding with DeMartino said Bodan’s driving was not especially erratic and that DeMartino spoke to Bodan in English, even though he knew the driver spoke only Spanish.

DeMartino’s account also varied from the one given to Los Angeles police officers, who found no wrongdoing. Meanwhile, a passenger in the truck--who refused to come forward during the criminal investigation because he feared the police--told the jury that DeMartino shot Bodan without warning.

The case was the first fatal shooting in the history of the transit police. But it was held up by critics as a worst-case example of problems that had plagued the agency for some time. A 1991 Times investigation found that at least half a dozen of 192 transit officers either had troubled histories at other police agencies or had retired on disability pensions, saying they could no long perform police work.

The Bodan shooting was at the time the third in three years for DeMartino. No one was injured in the earlier two incidents, records show, and in both cases, DeMartino reported seeing guns that were never found.

The $3.5 million will be assessed against the MTA. It is to be determined in the punitive phase of the trial, beginning today, whether DeMartino must pay further compensation.