Judge Dismisses Claim in Former SPHS Freeway Death

A judge Monday dismissed part of a lawsuit filed against the state and City of El Monte by the parents of former student Sophia Ilona Salazar, who was hit by a truck and killed May 29 of last year on the Pomona (60) Freeway after officers allegedly ignored pleas to help her get home, reports City News Service (CNS).

Mother and father Anette Esmaili and Rodolfo Salazar of Monterey Park in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 25.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Barbara Scheper on Monday granted a motion by defense attorneys dismissing the couple's claim for violation of civil rights on grounds that the state and city have immunity. But Scheper said a negligence claim can remain if more details are provided in an amended complaint, according to CNS. 

The lawsuit alleges that Salazar, a 17-year-old Pasadena City College student at the time, went to a party at a Monterey Park home the evening of May 28, 2010. She left about midnight to return home and walked a mile before becoming lost.

About 12:30 a.m. on May 29, she approached two California Highway Patrol officers at a 7-Eleven store on Monterey Pass Road in Monterey Park and asked for help in getting home, according to her parents' court papers.

"Although Sophia was visibly shaken, disoriented, lost and alone, the ... officers refused to drive her home a few miles away," the suit alleges.

The officers hailed the girl a cab, but she could not pay the $10 fare so resumed her quest to find her way home on foot, according to her parents.

"The officers failed to pursue the distraught minor or in any way attempt to stop her from walking along at night in a high-crime area," their suit alleges.

Both El Monte police and the CHP later received calls of a young woman walking alone on the Pomona (60) Freeway, according to the plaintiffs. One of the departments dispatched a helicopter but neither sent a rescue vehicle. One side of the freeway was ordered closed, but not both directions, the family's court papers state.

Around 1 a.m. while walking near the 60/Long Beach (710) Freeway interchange in East Los Angeles, the former South Pasadena High School student was struck by a Jeep.

Keith Griffin, an attorney for the family, said he is still looking into many of the details of the incident, including the precise actions of the California Highway Patrol and El Monte police that night. The girl likely was befuddled by the lights and sound of the helicopter, according to the plaintiffs' court papers.