An ex-firefighter who “lost everything” after being found guilty of hitting a cat-feeding woman during a shouting match in his West Adams neighborhood got some bad news Tuesday when a state appeals court panel upheld his conviction.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that there were errors in the retrial of Ian Justin Eulian, who was found guilty in May 2015 of one felony count each of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury.
Jurors also found true an allegation that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on Rebecca Stafford. His mother was present during the Sept. 24, 2013, altercation.
“The critical issue in this trial was whether defendant used a reasonable amount of force in self-defense or defense of his mother,” the appellate court panel wrote in a 28-page ruling. “The jury could rationally conclude that defendant provoked the conflict, and that he continued to be the aggressor until Stafford responded, at which point defendant knocked her out with a series of punches … We do not suggest Stafford was blameless in this incident. It would be generous to say that her conduct left much to be desired.”
In his first trial in which jurors deadlocked on the charges against him, Eulian testified that he had spoken to Stafford about her habit of feeding the cats and that she told him she would feed the strays at the end of an alley.
But on Sept. 14, 2013, he spotted her again and the two got into an expletive-filled shouting match in the 2500 block of West View Street. He testified that Stafford threw cat kibble at him and kicked him, and that he tried to punch her after she kicked his mother.
Eulian admitted trying to punch Stafford while she was inside her Jeep, but said he missed. He testified that he pulled her out of the vehicle “to stop her from abusing my mother” and struck Stafford, and she hit the ground.
Stafford testified in Eulian’s first trial that she remembered him “reaching into my car and grabbing me. And I said, ‘Are you going to hit me?’ and then it was like lights out. I don’t remember anything until I woke up.”
She testified that she told Eulian multiple times during the confrontation to leave her alone and tried to assure him that she was not feeding the cats that day but just trying to catch one.
Eulian’s attorney countered that his client was “coming to the defense and protection of his 70-year-old mother” during the confrontation with Stafford.
In its ruling, the state appellate court panel noted that Eulian and his mother later told Stafford that she had tripped and hit her face on her vehicle. Eulian’s mother drove the woman home as Eulian followed in a separate vehicle, according to the ruling.
Eulian was sentenced last June to 180 days in jail and ordered to perform 25 days of Caltrans service, spend a year in anger management counseling and serve three years on probation, but a Los Angeles Superior Court judge allowed the former firefighter to remain free on bail while he appealed his conviction.
The defense could now ask the California Supreme Court to review the case against Eulian, who apologized to Stafford minutes before his sentence was handed down.
He said his Sept. 14, 2013, confrontation with Stafford, which occurred while he was off duty, is in “no way representative of the way I am,” adding that he was “not proud of my actions.”
“My emotions got the best of me,” he said.
“I’ve lost everything — my reputation, my career … Please allow me the chance to continue to provide for my family,” said Eulian, whose attorney said outside court that Eulian had resigned rather than be fired.
Stafford thanked Eulian for his apology last year, saying she appreciated it and didn’t have an opinion about whether he should have to serve time behind bars.
She said the biggest problem she had was “getting blamed for things that I didn’t do” during the run-in, and that she had been afraid of going to the neighborhood market up until his apology because she believed she might run into Eulian there.
—City News Service