Jury Awards $516,000 in Store Kidnapping

A Ventura County jury has awarded a kidnapping victim more than $500,000 in damages after finding that a lack of security measures at the Wal-Mart store in Oxnard was partly to blame for the crime.

But a lawyer for the company said the damages will be reduced under California law.

The lawsuit alleged that the Rose Avenue Wal-Mart failed to take reasonable precautions to protect customers in the store’s parking lot, said attorney Gary Dordick, who brought the negligence case on behalf of a Port Hueneme woman.

About 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 9, 1998, the woman--parked four spaces from the store’s entrance--was kidnapped and robbed by two men who held a gun to her head and forced her to partly undress. They abandoned her in a remote area in Oxnard and drove off in her car.

Edwin McMillan, 20, and Joshua Erwin, 19, were convicted of the crime, but the lawsuit claimed that the store was to blame as well.

The jury apparently agreed and Wednesday awarded the woman $516,000 for emotional distress. An additional $55,777 was awarded for lost wages and medical costs.

Dordick said that in the two-year period before the kidnapping, the Oxnard Police Department received 933 calls for service from the store and its immediate vicinity.

While many of the calls involved shoplifting and check fraud inside the store, others involved vehicle thefts, assaults and robberies outside.

During that period, Wal-Mart placed 205 security cameras and four security guards inside but took no such steps outside, Dordick said.

“Wal-Mart’s loss-prevention department was only focused on protecting the store’s property inside, rather than the security of its customers,” he said.

The retailer has since installed brighter lighting, security guards and cameras in the parking lot.

Tyrone Maho, attorney for the store, said that under Proposition 51, passed by voters in 1986, Wal-Mart must only pay the amount of damages tied to the victim’s emotional distress that are proportional to its amount of liability.

Since the jury found the company only 10% liable for the victim’s emotional injury, the damages will be automatically reduced to $51,600, Maho said. The company is still liable for the complete cost of lost wages and medical care.

Dordick said he plans to challenge Wal-Mart’s motion for the lower damage award.