Police Panelist’s Spouse Enters Not Guilty Plea

Daniel Jay Bussel, the husband of Los Angeles Police Commissioner Raquelle de la Rocha, pleaded not guilty to a vehicular manslaughter charge Tuesday, two months after he allegedly struck two pedestrians in a Van Nuys crosswalk, killing one.

Bussel, a professor at the UCLA Law School, was turning right at about 4 mph onto Fulton Avenue when he hit the victims, according to the police report. His wife’s 11-year-old daughter was a passenger in the vehicle.

Betty Brown, a 73-year-old Van Nuys woman, suffered severe cranial injuries in the March 14 accident and died the next day. The other victim, Juan Huerta, 28, of Van Nuys, suffered cuts on his hands and knees.

Bussel, who declined to comment, did not appear in court. His plea to one count of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence was entered by his attorney. The maximum penalty for the offense is a one-year revocation of his driver’s license, a year in County Jail and a $1,000 fine.

The charge “doesn’t fall into the definition of gross negligence,” said Laura Van Eyk, assistant chief of the Van Nuys branch of the city attorney’s office.

Bussel, 39, told police that “he never saw” the pedestrians crossing the street but heard “pounding on the hood” of his car and stopped, according to the police report. He estimated his speed at 3 to 4 mph.

Bussel “said he was rolling through the stop sign and didn’t make a complete stop,” according to the police report.

Huerta said the vehicle rolled through the stop sign, knocking down Brown and then striking him. He said he pounded on the car to get the driver’s attention, the report said. The collision occurred at 7:10 a.m. in a residential neighborhood near Valley College.

De la Rocha was at the scene as police investigated, the report noted, and she “rubbed the hood [of the car] with her hands.”

She said she went to the accident scene, and when she leaned on the hood while talking to her daughter, a police officer pointed out that she was touching the car. De la Rocha said she then lifted her hand. She said her hand had left a smudge, so she reached out to wipe it off.

She said the place where she touched the hood was far from where the impact occurred and she was not trying to tamper with evidence.

Lt. Horace Frank, a department spokesman, said that despite the mention of the action in the police report, investigators did not believe De la Rocha did anything wrong at the scene.

“Based on the investigation, it was submitted as a misdemeanor,” Frank said. “This particular case was handled as we would handle any other case.”

LAPD Det. Robert Uber said he made the decision that the accident involved “simple negligence,” which warranted a misdemeanor charge, not “gross negligence,” which might have resulted in a felony with state prison time.

“It was an accident,” Uber said.

Brown’s children, Janet Brown and Jonathan Brown, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bussel and De la Rocha. According to the complaint, the Brown family is seeking reimbursement for medical expenses, funeral costs and other damages.

Bussel’s attorney, Ezekiel Perlo, declined to comment. “There’s still a lot of investigating to do,” he said.

Times staff writers Patrick Mcgreevy and Martha L. Willman contributed to this story.