McCourt Lawyers to Ask for Second Hold on Bryan Stow Suit

By City News Service

Lawyers for former Dodger owner Frank McCourt on Tuesday will make their second request to place on hold a civil suit brought by a man left brain-damaged in a beating outside Dodger Stadium two years ago.

Bryan Stow sued in Los Angeles Superior Court in May 2011. The defendants in the case have been pared to McCourt and three of his former team entities. Among the claims are assault, battery, negligence, premises liability, negligent hiring and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Stow, now 43 and a resident of the Santa Cruz area, suffered a fracture that resulted in the loss of a portion of his skull. He also suffered brain damage.

Trial of Stow's lawsuit is scheduled for Aug. 27, but defense attorneys say it would be unfair to their side to move forward until they can review key documents in the criminal investigation and take depositions of the two alleged assailants.

Defense attorneys were turned down in their first request for a stay from Judge Abraham Khan. The judge instead delayed the trial for three months.

Defense lawyers are again asking for a stay or, in the alternative, another delay of the trial date. Norwood and Sanchez have had a preliminary hearing, but their criminal case has not yet gone to trial either. They are both named in a cross complaint filed by McCourt.

Stow's lead attorney, Thomas Girardi wants to keep the August trial date. He says any delay would be hard financially for Stow because his client's insurance has been depleted and there has been a reduction in the level of care the former paramedic receives because of the cost.

"Over the past few months, Bryan has suffered numerous setbacks,'' Girardi's court papers state. "For example, he was hospitalized on at least two occasions for blood clots. Bryan remains in constant pain, is wheelchair- bound and has the cognitive wherewithal of an adolescent child.''

Stow lives in his parents' home, where he receives 24-hour care, Girardi said.

But defense attorneys counter in their court papers that preparation of the team's defense of Stow's lawsuit is being hampered by the refusal of beating suspects Louie Sanchez, 31, and Marvin Norwood, 32, both of Rialto, to testify during depositions and to instead assert their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination given that their criminal case trial is still pending. The Dodgers have filed a cross-complaint against the two men.

The team lawyers also said Los Angeles police and the District Attorney's Office have declined to hand over more than 32,000 documents related to the criminal investigation. Deputy City Attorney Jess Gonzalez said during a recent hearing that it is possible some documents can be released to McCourt's lawyers, but that it will take him about a month to determine which ones can be turned over.

However, McCourt attorney Dawn Flores-Oster states in her court papers that Gonzalez subsequently doubled the time he would need to conduct such a review.

According to Flores-Oster's court papers, deposition testimony taken this month from three witnesses to the Stow beating "revealed a clearly different story than that which (Stow's lawyers have) consistently proposed.

Jeffrey Bradford and Corey Maciel, who were with Stow at Dodger Stadium that day, both said the group took a photo of themselves making an obscene gesture at a "Welcome to Dodger Stadium" sign, according to the McCourt attorneys' court papers.

The photo is part of the LAPD file and could show the Stow group had a role in inciting one or both of the two altercations they had with Norwood and Sanchez, the McCourt lawyers' court papers state.

Bradford also testified that Stow had to be "physically restrained by Maciel, presumably from assaulting Sanchez and/or Norwood, which could indicate (Stow) was the initial aggressor and may have caused the altercation, critical evidence which can only be developed once the criminal prosecution is completed,'' the McCourt attorneys' court papers state.

Norwood's deposition testimony is needed to corroborate Maciel statements that Stow was "in a verbal confrontation" with Norwood moments before Sanchez allegedly hit the victim, according to the McCourt lawyers' court papers.