RivCo to Pay Out $1.5 Million in Wrongful Death Suit

By City News Service:

Riverside County will pay $1.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a man killed by a sheriff’s deputy during a stop last year, an attorney said Friday.

Adam Bosch, 29, of Norco was shot after Deputy Steve Lycopolus pulled him over at an am/pm gas station in Jurupa Valley on the night of July 7, 2013.

Bosch family attorney Dale K. Galipo said the deputy fired from the side and rear of the victim’s car as Bosch began driving away, and bullets struck him in the back.

Lycopolus claimed that he opened fire because Bosch was driving toward him and was going to hit him and another deputy on the scene, according to court papers.

Deputy Albert Martinez, a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Galipo said the testimony of independent eyewitnesses and surveillance video showed that Lycopolus was not in front of Bosch’s car when he fired the shots.

In the civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, the Bosch family further alleged that deputies tampered with the surveillance video in an attempt to cover up the shooter’s actions.

The Bosch family is calling for Lycopolus to be criminally prosecuted by state authorities.

“I want him fully prosecuted,” said Ignatz Bosch, the victim’s father. “What does it take before they (prosecutors) do something?”

The settlement, which provides for Adam Bosch’s 12-year-old son and other family members, was finalized by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson last month.

“Officers are supposed to use deadly force only in life-threatening situations,” Galipo said. “This deputy was not in immediate danger.”