Suit Settled in Slaying at Party

The mother of a 17-year-old girl who police say killed a Santa Monica High School sophomore at a party two years ago has settled a lawsuit by the victim’s parents rather than face a jury trial.

Angelique Bernstein’s insurance company, Allstate, will pay $300,000 to Harriet and Ilja Maran, the parents of Deanna Maran. The 15-year-old athlete was fatally stabbed at an unsupervised Westwood party in November 2001.

The Marans sued Bernstein and her ex-husband, Sarkis Sarkissian, in Santa Monica Superior Court in May 2002, alleging that the parents should have known that their daughter Katrina Sarkissian was emotionally unstable and dangerous.

The day after the party, Katrina took an overdose of a prescription antidepressant, collapsed during LAPD questioning and was pronounced dead that afternoon.

Anthony Michael Glassman, an attorney for the Marans, said they plan to continue their effort to bring Sarkis Sarkissian to trial. Superior Court Judge Linda Lefkowitz threw out the suit against him last week, saying he had no opportunity to control his daughter’s behavior the evening of Nov. 17, 2001, when Deanna Maran was attacked in front of dozens of guests.

Glassman said he plans to appeal the dismissal on grounds that Sarkissian was just as responsible as his ex-wife.

The judge also ruled that Bernstein should stand trial before a jury beginning Dec. 15, prompting Bernstein to settle rather than face “a trial in front of a jury or an outrageous demand,” said Paul V. Ash, her attorney. Allstate will pay the settlement under Bernstein’s homeowners policy.

Lefkowitz’s ruling portrays Katrina as a troubled adolescent who abused drugs and alcohol. Beginning in eighth grade, the judge wrote, the girl began missing classes and having “confrontational episodes” with other students.

Court papers say Katrina had also had physical altercations with her mother.

In January 1999, Katrina’s parents admitted her to a therapeutic residential school in Utah. She tried to run away.

Despite school officials’ recommendation that she stay at least nine months, her parents took her home on a pass that June and never returned.