Relatives of one of two El Monte police officers fatally shot by a convicted felon in that city in 2022 will have to shore up their lawsuit against two Los Angeles County entities, particularly in the area of an alleged breach of mandatory duty, a judge ruled Monday while expressing skepticism that the problems can be fixed.
“Although the court is concerned that many of the defects identified in the complaint are not curable by amendment, the court will permit (family members of the late Officer Joseph Santana) leave to amend given the liberal policy of amendment in this state,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Hwang wrote while giving the plaintiffs 30 days to file a revised lawsuit.
Santana and fellow EMPD Officer 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 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 county Probation Department on various grounds, including wrongful death, negligence and breach of a mandatory duty, as well as negligence by the motel.
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, Gascon disregarded California’s “three strikes” law, which requires prosecutors to plead prior known strikes, the suit states.
The Santana family attorneys maintain that if Gascón had followed the law, Flores would have been sentenced to prison.
But Hwang said the complaint contains no allegation that the District Attorney’s Office’s decision to not implement the prior strike was the proximate cause of Santana’s death.
“Thus, regardless of whether the D.A.’s Office breached a mandatory duty to plead the prior strike in this case, such breach was not the cause of Flores being placed on probation rather than being incarcerated at the time of the murder,” the judge wrote.
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, but Flores was not taken into custody, the suit states. But Hwang wrote that although Santana’s relatives allege a mandatory duty by the Probation Department to file a desertion report, the complaint once again fails to make a direct connection between the alleged breach of a mandatory duty and Santana’s killing.
Flores died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
Hwang is scheduled to address the county’s challenges to the Paredes family’s allegations in the consolidated lawsuit on Oct. 23.