A judge says he will review the personnel records of three Los Angeles police officers involved in a civil case involving a mother who allegedly drowned her three children in 2021 in Reseda to decide which, if any, should be turned over to the children’s father.
In his Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed in April 2022 against the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, plaintiff Erik Denton alleges that LAPD officers were negligent and did not take seriously the indications that the mental health of Liliana Carrillo, the mother of the two girls and one boy, was declining, and did not share information they had with county social workers.
In October, a judge found that Carrillo, 33, was insane at the time of the April 10, 2021, killings of her 6-month-old daughter Sierra, 3-year-old daughter Joanna and 2-year-old son Terry. During a Wednesday hearing in Denton’s civil case, Judge Lee S. Arian noted that he had denied a previous motion by the plaintiff to obtain LAPD officers’ records.
“In the renewed motion, plaintiff provides overwhelming evidence establishing that officers should have had a reasonable suspicion of abuse,” the judge wrote.
The plaintiff has presented a showing not only of the conclusions of “internal adjudications but also of the policies considered in making those determinations” and the alternative actions the officers should or could have taken, Arian wrote.
“Together, these elements form a basis for plaintiff’s negligence claims,” the judge found.
The information Denton’s attorneys seek regarding the three offices includes records pertaining to their employment history, performance reviews, disciplinary records and training involving child abuse and neglect as well as responding to calls involving people suffering mental health issues.
The judge will review the records in chambers on a future date and decide which to turn over to Dentons’ attorneys. Trial of Denton’s suit is scheduled June 2.
In an interview from jail following her arrest, Carrillo told a reporter for the Bakersfield NBC affiliate KGET that she killed her children because she feared their abuse and sexual assault at the hands of others.
“I drowned them,” she said of her children. “I wasn’t about to hand my children off to be further abused.”
When asked by the KGET reporter if she regretted her actions, she said, “I wish my kids were alive, yes. Do I wish that I didn’t have to do that? Yes. But I prefer them not being tortured and abused on a regular basis for the rest of their life.”