Lawsuit Is Filed Over Bank Robber’s Death

The day after release of an autopsy report concluding that one of the North Hollywood bank robbers slowly bled to death after 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 Los Angeles police “murdered” Matasareanu by refusing to provide him medical care. The lawsuit alleges civil rights violations and police misconduct.

“Rather than provide or permit the provision of that medical attention, whose rendering would have saved decedent’s life, these officers . . . coldbloodedly murdered decedent,” the lawsuit states.

Los Angeles Police Department officials say they did not immediately allow rescue crews to treat Matasareanu because officers feared Matasareanu’s body could have been rigged with booby traps or live grenades. Gasoline bombs were later found 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 the two men acted alone.

In the lawsuit, Yagman contends a total of six people participated in the bank robbery. Of the six, Yagman alleges, two were shot dead, including Matasareanu’s accomplice, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., and he says three others escaped. Yagman claims in the suit that one accomplice was arrested by Los Angeles police and is being held in jail.

Yagman said Friday he did not have time to elaborate on the claims. He scheduled a news conference today in Venice.

Although Chief Willie L. Williams, citing the lawsuit, said Friday he and the department could not comment on the investigation, LAPD and FBI officials discussed the Yagman 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 fierce gun battle for more than a half hour after their Bank of America robbery attempt.

Wearing body armor and carrying assault weapons, the robbers tried to flee 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.

Paramedics pronounced him dead at 11:10 a.m. In the autopsy report, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office did not determine his time of death, saying investigators did not have any reason to conduct tests for that information.

Dr. Marshall Morgan, chief of emergency medicine at UCLA Medical Center who reviewed the autopsy report at the request of The Times, said he believes the robber could have survived his wounds if only first aid had been given.

None of the gunshot wounds, in fact, appeared life-threatening, Morgan said.

The autopsy report showed 27 shots had broken the skin, including several in the thigh that caused the heaviest bleeding. Those bullets did not hit the femoral artery, which is the main blood supply to the leg. The other wounds caused the excessive bleeding, said Scott Carrier, the coroner’s spokesman.

Nicolescu-Matasareanu, a 54-year-old Romanian native, said she does not understand the police department’s explanation of why her son was not treated promptly. Mark Geragos, her attorney, said Nicolescu-Matasareanu wants LAPD Inspector General Katherine Mader to investigate the conduct of officers who did not call for medical help.

“Something went drastically wrong here,” Geragos said. “Somebody made a decision here to play judge, jury and executioner.”

Mader, who was unavailable for comment on Friday, has said she plans to review the department’s internal investigation. The LAPD has identified 32 officers who fired shots at the robbers.

Nicolescu-Matasareanu, meanwhile, is fighting felony dependent-abuse charges that stem from the discovery of a mentally disturbed woman who had been living without heat or water in a Pasadena property Nicolescu-Matasareanu owned. The woman was found when police searched the home for clues in the robbery investigation.

Nicolescu-Matasareanu is due back in court on the abuse charges Tuesday.

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