Judgment has been entered in favor of Los Angeles County in a lawsuit filed by a San Francisco 49ers fan who was left in a medically induced coma after being battered in a SoFi Stadium parking lot during the 2022 NFC championship game, with a judge finding that sheriff’s deputies did not owe any obligations to the intoxicated plaintiff.
The Los Angeles Rams and plaintiff Daniel Luna’s alleged assailant, Bryan Alexis Cifuentes, were among the original defendants when the case was brought in September 2022. Luna’s wife, Irene Sulencka, alleges loss of consortium. Cifuentes has maintained that he acted in self defense in the confrontation with Luna.
Luna and Sulencka filed a first amended complaint in May 2023 adding the city of Inglewood and the county as defendants. However, the city was dropped as a defendant in August 2022 and on April 24, Inglewood Superior Court Judge Ronald F. Frank signed a judgment in favor of the county.
On Feb. 28, county lawyers convinced Frank to grant their motion to dismiss the government entity as a defendant in Luna’s suit, with the judge ruling that the county was shielded from liability. In addition to their legal arguments, the county lawyers maintained in their court papers that surveillance footage showed Luna was denied entrance to the stadium for not having a ticket and that sheriff’s deputies had no further contact with him after he was escorted away.
“Mr. Luna admits that afterward he joined a tailgate, consumed alcohol to the point of intoxication and initiated contact with Mr. Cifuentes prior to the altercation,” the county attorneys stated in their court papers.
The appellate courts have “repeatedly and consistently held that public entities and law enforcement do not owe any duty to intoxicated persons such Mr. Luna,” the county attorneys argued in their court papers.
Luna’s attorneys maintained the deputies should have put the plaintiff in a “sobering cell or a similar room or an automobile” given his intoxication and that failing to do so put Luna in danger of physical harm. Instead, the deputies placed Luna “near groups of competing fans who were consuming large amounts of alcohol during a rivalry game,” Luna’s attorneys contended in their court papers.
But in his ruling, the judge said the deputies had no “duty of care” regarding Luna.
“Here, the Sheriff’s Department did not create the peril in which plaintiff found himself,” Frank wrote. “(Luna) alleges that he was already inebriated when he was detained initially. The sheriffs took no affirmative action which contributed to, increased or changed the risk which would have otherwise existed.”
The lawsuit stems from a Jan. 30, 2022, altercation that occurred as the Rams and 49ers were playing for a trip to Super Bowl LVI — a game eventually won by the Rams.
Prosecutors said Luna approached a group of people outside the stadium and an altercation ensued, during which Cifuentes allegedly slugged Luna, who fell to the ground.
Luna, who was wearing a 49ers jersey, was found by a security guard in the parking lot and taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was placed in a medically induced coma with injuries to his face and upper body.
Cifuentes was eventually found with the help of surveillance video that recorded a vehicle license plate image. After Cifuentes’ arrest, his acquaintances told reporters that Luna was the aggressor and looked intoxicated.
Friends of Luna said he flew to Los Angeles and attended the game alone after other fans who planned to go canceled those plans. Luna owns the Oakland Peruvian fusion restaurant Mistura.
A nonjury trial of the case is scheduled Dec. 16.