The City Attorney’s Office is objecting to a proposed deposition of an LAPD detective, saying he cannot shed light on claims by a billionaire chip-equipment supplier and his wife, who contend the 2023 death of their mentally disabled 18-year-old daughter, Ameila Salehpour, was due to LAPD negligence.
Ali Salehpour and Suzanne Salehpour are the plaintiffs in the Van Nuys Superior Court lawsuit. The Salehpours allege their daughter was negligently allowed to check herself out of Saddleback Recovery, a subcontractor of Rising Roads Recovery Services LLC, and that due to carelessness by the LAPD, she was later found dead in the garage of a Van Nuys home, where her parents believed she was being groomed for sex work.
On Wednesday, the City Attorney’s Office filed court papers with Judge Lee S. Arian ahead of a conference scheduled Friday outlining their objections to the proposed deposition of LAPD Det. John Lamberti of the Robbery-Homicide Bureau, who prepared a “second look” death investigation report so that a set of “fresh eyes” could be placed on the case.
“Importantly, Det. Lamberti’s report is entirely focused on the issue of whether or not there is any evidence that Amelia was murdered and it does not address the missing-person report made by plaintiffs or in any way analyze the sole issue in the civil case,” the City Attorney’s Office states in it court papers.
The suit alleges the LAPD and Sgt. Jose Monzon is made promises to search for Amelia Salepour that were relied upon by her parents, thus creating a “special relationship,” and that had the LAPD searched the Van Nuys home more thoroughly, the young woman would have been found alive.
But the City Attorney’s Office maintains the city has immunity in the case and had no duty to Amelia Salehpour.
“There is no right to police services, a governmental investigation or a particular type of police investigation,” lawyers for the City Attorney’s Office state in their court papers.
Because the city has immunity from the parents’ claims, their thrice-amended lawsuit “fails as a matter of law,” according to the City Attorney’s Office’s court papers.
A “special relationship” exists in the law between the police and an individual, creating a duty to avoid being negligent only exists in the law when officers make specific promises to undertake a particular action and fail to do so, where the police do something to increase an individual’s peril or where the officers lull the person into a false sense of security, according to the City Attorney’s Office’s court papers.
According to the couple’s lawsuit, from July 22-26, 2023, Amelia Salehpour was taken from Rising Roads, a Costa Mesa licensed treatment facility, to Saddleback Recovery. Within 72 hours, she was beaten, raped and killed more than 60 miles away at a Los Angeles residence known as a hub for narcotics sales and both human- and gun-trafficking and where she had been taken by a gang member after discharging herself from Saddleback, the suit states.
The home was frequented by gang members, sexual deviants, drug users and dealers of drugs and assault weapons, the suit alleges.
Days before Amelia Salehpour’s arrival at the home, the LAPD went to a distress call there and found and rescued a young woman being held hostage inside, yet despite those circumstances and the allegedly overwhelming evidence suggesting foul play and human trafficking of the plaintiffs’ daughter, the LAPD and medical examiners determined she died of an accidental drug overdose, the suit states.
Although Amelia Salehpour was an adult at the time, she had an eighth-grade education level, according to the suit, which further states a private autopsy revealed Amelia Salehpour suffered sexual assault and blunt trauma to the head and other extremities.