Ruling in lawsuit on police shooting that killed girl in Burlington store must wait, judge says

A decision on a bid by the City Attorney’s Office and a lawyer for a Los Angeles Police Department officer to stay a lawsuit by family members of a 14-year-old girl accidentally shot by the officer inside a North Hollywood clothing store was delayed on Tuesday, April 18, because the judge hearing the motion deferred any ruling until May.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Cherol J. Nellon is on a temporary assignment filling in for Judge Daniel M. Crowley, who heard all motions in the civil case involving the death of Valentina Orellana-Peralta before Tuesday. Nellon postponed the hearing until May 31 so Crowley can hear the motion when he returns.

The police commission ruled in November that LAPD Officer William Dorsey Jones’ first rifle shot at a suspect, Daniel Elena-Lopez, who was attacking a woman inside the Burlington Coat Factory on Victory Boulevard on Dec. 23, 2021, was within the department’s policy regarding the use of deadly force.

However, the commission found Jones’ second and third shots that killed both Elena-Lopez and the girl, a freshman at High Tech Los Angeles Charter School who was hiding inside a stall with her mother in the store’s dressing rooms behind where the suspect was standing, were out of policy.

The girl’s parents sued the city and Jones last July 14 for wrongful death, but attorneys for the city and the officer say a temporary halt of the suit is necessary.

“The motion to stay is made on the grounds that the possibility of a parallel criminal proceeding renders a stay of civil litigation necessary to preserve defendant Jones’ Fifth Amendment rights while enabling defendant Jones to defend himself in both this and the possible parallel criminal proceeding,” lawyers for the City Attorney’s Office and Jones state in their court papers.

Any shooting in Los Angeles County by a police officer is reviewed by the Justice System Integrity Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, including the girl’s shooting that is the subject of the lawsuit, but that assessment has not been completed, according to the joint defense attorneys’ court papers.

“Thus, there remains the possibility for criminal prosecution of Officer Jones arising out of the subject shooting,” the joint defense lawyers’ court papers further state. “Officer Jones’ Fifth Amendment rights are directly and heavily implicated as the potential criminal action is based on the same shooting as this civil action.”

Unlike in a criminal case, a civil case jury is permitted to draw an adverse inference from a refusal by a witness to testify, the joint defense attorneys state in their court papers.