Widow, Children Sue City, Police

The family of an Oxnard man who died in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of driving drunk and causing a traffic accident has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Oxnard and its Police Department.

Samuel Paz, a Los Angeles-based civil-rights attorney who specializes in police brutality cases, filed the lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Luther Thomas Allen’s wife, Jean, and his two daughters, Phyllis Allen and Cynthia Davis.

The suit also names Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Gold Coast Ambulance.

Allen died Oct. 1 at St. John’s Regional Medical Center after an Oxnard police officer found him unconscious in his holding cell about three hours after he had been arrested.

According to the lawsuit, Allen had rear-ended a Cadillac at Ventura Road and Channel Islands Boulevard.

The force of the crash had apparently caused massive internal injuries, fracturing 16 of Allen’s ribs and his sternum and causing organs to burst, the lawsuit said. But Allen had refused medical attention, according to paramedics and police officials.

Because he was walking and conscious, paramedics said they could not force him to go to the hospital.

Allen was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and taken to the Oxnard Police Station, where he was booked and put in a holding cell, authorities said. He was found unconscious about two hours after the accident.

The lawsuit alleges that the Police Department and paramedics had refused to provide needed medical attention to Allen and that he died from massive internal injuries.

In December, Paz said that he planned to file the Allen lawsuit concurrent with two other suits on behalf of Oxnard families whose loved ones also died in police custody. But he said Tuesday that the logistics became too complicated.

Allen’s family asks for damages “in excess of six figures,” Paz said.