Lawsuit Filed Over Death of Bank Robber

The day after the release of an autopsy report concluding that one of the North Hollywood bank robbers slowly bled to death after Los Angeles police shot him, the dead man’s mother Friday accused authorities of withholding medical care and letting her son die on the street.

“Even an animal is not left to die like my son was left to die,” Valerie Nicolescu-Matasareanu told a news conference in Pasadena. “I don’t say what my son did was right . . . but my son is dead. Today I don’t have nothing--only the ashes of my son.”

Attorney Stephen Yagman filed a federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of Emil Matasareanu’s two young sons, alleging that Los Angeles police “coldbloodedly murdered” Matasareanu by refusing to provide him medical care. The lawsuit alleges civil rights violations and police misconduct.

LAPD officials said they did not immediately allow rescue crews to treat Matasareanu because officers feared that his body could have been rigged with booby traps or live grenades. Gasoline bombs were found after Matasareanu’s death in the robbers’ car, but no explosives were found on their bodies.

Police say they were also concerned for the safety of medical workers because at the time they thought there might be armed accomplices nearby. LAPD investigators have since concluded that the two men acted alone.

The lawsuit, however, alleges that six people participated in the bank robbery. Of the six, Yagman said, two were shot dead, including Matasareanu’s accomplice, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., and three escaped. Yagman claims in the lawsuit that one accomplice was arrested by Los Angeles police and is being held in jail.

Although Chief Willie L. Williams said Friday that he and the department could not comment on the investigation, citing the lawsuit, LAPD and FBI officials discussed the allegations earlier this week.

“This is the first I’ve heard of these other people,” said LAPD Det. Tom Wich, who has worked exclusively on the investigation since Feb. 28, the day of the dramatic shootout with police that followed the attempted bank robbery. “It’s not true. Bad information.”

William Rehder, the FBI’s coordinator of bank robbery investigations in Los Angeles, said: “It was a two-man deal all the way.”

Matasareanu was shot by police shortly after he and Phillips--who also died from gunshot wounds--engaged police in a gun battle for more than half an hour after their Bank of America robbery attempt. Wearing body armor and carrying assault weapons, the robbers attempted to escape from police but were shot within minutes of each other in a neighborhood east of the bank branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Phillips died first, after shooting himself in the head and being shot 11 times by police.

Matasareanu was hit 29 times shortly before 10 a.m., according to police and eyewitness accounts. He was seen conscious, talking and moving his head until he died.

Meanwhile, Nicolescu-Matasareanu, is fighting felony abuse charges against her that stem from the discovery of a mentally disturbed woman who had been living without heat or water in a Pasadena property owned by the Matasareanus. The woman was found when police searched the home for clues in the robbery investigation. Nicolescu-Matasareanu is due in court on the charges Tuesday.

Shuster is a Times staff writer and Winton is a correspondent.