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LA County seeks dismissal of claims over El Monte officer’s death
LA County Jul 01, 2023
Slain El Monte Police Officers Joseph Santana, left, and Michael Paredes. | Photos courtesy of the city of El Monte
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Los Angeles County is immune from civil liability in the 2022 death of one of two El Monte police officers fatally shot by a convicted felon in that city, according to county attorneys, who also argue in new court papers that the slain officer assumed the risk of injury.
Officers Joseph Santana and Michael Paredes responded to a report of a stabbing on June 14, 2022, at the Siesta Inn, where Justin Flores was staying with his wife. The El Monte officers rescued the victim, but were subsequently shot to death by Flores.
Santana’s relatives are suing Los Angeles County, District Attorney George Gascón and his office, the LA County Probation Department and the motel for wrongful death. On Friday, attorneys for those defendants filed court papers with LA Superior Court Judge Michael E. Whitaker seeking dismissal of the claims against their clients.
According to the county attorneys’ court papers, even if the plaintiffs could state a “viable” cause of action, the county defendants are immune from civil liability for Santana’s death.
“The issue here is not whether Flores’ criminal actions were deplorable,” the county attorneys state in their court papers. “Rather, the issue here is whether defendants can be held civilly liable for those criminal actions.”
Under the plaintiffs’ theory, if a person potentially could have been imprisoned longer, or whose probation could have been revoked earlier, then commits a crime, the government and its officials are liable for all consequences of that crime, the county lawyers further state in their court papers.
“The implications of plaintiffs’ theory of liability are unfathomable, unprecedented and unacceptable,” according to the county attorneys’ court papers, which further state that Santana assumed the inherent risks associated with being a police officer and “also knew that the location where he was murdered was particularly dangerous.”
According to the suit filed May 3, Flores, 35, was placed on probation in a plea deal in 2021 after he was arrested in 2020 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and methamphetamine. Even though Flores had a prior felony conviction for burglary, Gascón issued a directive barring the prosecutor handling Flores’ case from filing a strike allegation against him, the suit states.
In doing so, Gascón disregarded California’s “three strikes” law, which requires prosecutors to plead prior known strikes, the suit states.
According to the suit, if Gascón had followed the law, Flores would have been sentenced to prison. After being put on probation in March 2021, Flores was only seen by his probation officer once — although he was supposed to have monthly check-ins — and Probation Department members never initiated a desertion proceeding as their own policies required, which would have forced a probation revocation, the suit states.
On June 2, 2022, the probation officer completed a phone check-in with Flores after learning he was in illegal possession of a gun and had beaten a woman, but Flores did not show up for an appointment four days later and his probation officer never reported the information to law enforcement, the suit states.
The probation officer filed for a revocation of Flores’ probation a day before the shootings in El Monte, but Flores was not taken into custody, the suit states. Flores died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
A hearing on the county defendants’ dismissal motion is scheduled for Aug. 10.
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