Inland Valley

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed unanimously Tuesday to pay an additional $4.95 million to the family of Sarah Chester and her 13-year-old daughter Payton, who died in the helicopter crash that also killed Laker legend Kobe Bryant, over gruesome crash scene cell phone photos snapped by first responders.

The settlement, approved during a closed-session meeting of the board, is on top of the $15 million in damages awarded to the Chester family by a federal court jury on Aug. 24. Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, was also awarded $15 million in damages.

According to Mira Hashmall, an outside attorney representing the county in the litigation, the additional money approved by the board Tuesday “resolves all outstanding issues relating to the pending state claims, future claims by the Chester children, attorneys’ fees and costs. We sincerely hope this settlement will help Mr. Chester and his children move forward with their lives.”

Hashmall said the county believes the overall $19.95 million resolution with the Chester family is “fair and reasonable to all concerned.”

The agreement approved Tuesday applies only to the Chester family. It remained unclear if Vanessa Bryant still intends to pursue her state claims of invasion of privacy stemming from the photos taken at the crash scene.

Sarah Chester’s husband, Chris, and the Chester family sued the county over the personal photos snapped by sheriff’s deputies and county firefighters at the scene of the January 2020, crash in Chatsworth that killed nine people, including Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.

Attorneys for Chester and Vanessa Bryant argued during the trial that the plaintiffs suffered emotional pain and suffering after learning that personal photos of human remains at the crash scene were snapped and displayed for no good reason to a bartender, attendees of an awards ceremony and sent by a sheriff’s deputy to a colleague while they were playing a video game.

The county did not dispute that some photos were shared with a small number of deputies and firefighters. But defense attorneys maintained that all images taken by first responders were destroyed on orders of the sheriff and fire chief, and no longer exist in any form. The photos never entered the public domain or appeared on the internet, the county insisted.

Along with Chester and Bryant’s loved ones, the crash killed Alyssa Altobelli, 14; Keri Altobelli, 46; John Altobelli, 56; Christina Mauser, 38; and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50.

Two other families separately settled with the county over the photos for $1.25 million each. All of the victims’ families reached a settlement with the helicopter company over the crash, but those terms remain confidential.

A motorcyclist was killed after crashing into a sedan on the 10 Freeway near Rancho Cucamonga late Saturday, Sept. 17.

Just before 11:30 p.m., the Harley Davidson motorcycle was heading eastbound on the freeway, near 4th Street, at an unsafe speed, according to Officer Stephen Rawls, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson. The biker rear-ended a Lexus sedan that was then pushed into a Chevy sedan. The motorcycle’s specific speed was not provided.

The motorcyclist, a 41-year-old resident of Altadena, was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity was not released pending notification of family.

The drivers of the two cars were uninjured.

Anyone with information on the crash can contact the Rancho Cucamonga area CHP officer at 909-980-3994.

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A multi-vehicle collision involving a semitruck closed lanes and caused a large traffic backup Thursday afternoon, Sept. 15, on the eastbound 60 Freeway in Chino, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The crash occurred west of Mountain Avenue in Chino, a CHP incident log states.

The incident was reported to the CHP just before 3 p.m. Initial reports estimated the collision involved four to five vehicles and a truck hauling 30,000 pounds of frozen food. The truck driver was bleeding, the log said.

See more

SBCO: EB SR-60 @ Mountain Avenue (Chino), four lanes blocked due to traffic incident. Unknown duration. #Caltrans8 pic.twitter.com/JxatkNL5wA

— Caltrans District 8 (@Caltrans8) September 15, 2022

A CHP spokesperson could not immediately be reached Thursday evening.

A Sigalert was issued due to four lanes being blocked and the lane closures.

A driver fatally shot by an assailant in another car crashed Monday evening, Sept. 5, in Pomona, authorities said.

Police believe the car-to-car shooting happened at Monterey Avenue and Reservoir Street, with the victim’s vehicle continuing on and then hitting an empty, parked car at Monterey and San Antonio avenues, said Aly Mejia, a spokeswoman for the Pomona Police Department.

The coroner’s office had not yet released the victim’s name.

The motive behind the shooting, at about 6:45 p.m., was unknown. Investigators don’t yet know how many people were in the suspect vehicle.

Police asked that anyone with information about the shooting to call them at 909-620-2085. Anonymous tipsters can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or at lacrimestoppers.org.

 

An armed driver tailgated another motorist on the 10 Freeway in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, Sept. 1, then sped up and fired a single bullet at the victim’s car before fleeing, the California Highway Patrol said.

The violent encounter occurred east of Vineyard Avenue on the westbound side of the 10 at around 1:30 p.m.

The victim was driving in the No. 4 lane when the suspect pulled up behind them and tailgated their car, according to CHP. Moments later, the suspect merged into the fast lane and started to pass the victim. That’s when the suspect driver fired once at the victim.

The bullet nearly struck the victim, hitting the car in the dashboard area on the driver’s side, said Sgt. Jason Steen of the CHP’s Rancho Cucamonga office.

The shooting appeared to be random — the victim and suspect did not know each other, Steen said.

The next day, CHP officers arrested Grigor Muradyan, 39, of Pasadena. He’s being held in the West Valley Detention Center on $500,000 bail on an attempted murder charge. He’s expected to appear in court on Wednesday.

A pilot suffered minor injuries after a gyrocopter crash-landed on the runway at Brackett Field Airport in La Verne Saturday morning, authorities said.

The crash was reported about 9:15 a.m., said Eva Ngai, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The pilot was the only one on board the AutoGyro Calidus, a small two-seater.

The La Verne Fire Department tweeted about the crash just before 10 a.m.  Air traffic to and from the airport was temporarily shut down, but reopened a little over two hours later.

What caused the crash was not known.

A photo posted by the fire department showed the gyrocopter on its side on the runway.

Staff writer Caitlin Antonios contributed to this story.

Editor’s note: The type of aircraft was initially misidentified in this story.

Nearly one month after a fiery crash killed five people and an unborn baby at a Windsor Hills intersection, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Aug. 30, called for a series of studies and immediate steps aimed at slowing traffic at the crossroad and other high-danger roadways.

“Disturbingly, traffic fatalities have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reckless speeding, street takeovers and erratic driver behavior has become widespread,” Supervisor Holly Mitchell wrote in a motion that was approved on a 4-0 vote Tuesday, with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl absent.

“We need to explore the availability of additional tools to improve our infrastructure and to hold people accountable to mitigate dangerous driver behavior and keep people alive.”

Her motion called for a series of reports from county officials, and instructs the Department of Public Works to hire an outside contractor “to conduct an after-action review” of the response to the Aug. 4 crash at La Brea and Slauson avenues, with a report back to the board in 60 days.

It also called on Public Works officials to “take appropriate actions to slow down excessive speeds on La Brea Avenue and Slauson Avenue and surrounding areas including, but not limited to, consideration of off-the-shelf and/or quick-build safety improvements” within 30 days.

The motion also calls for county staff to explore what possible changes in state and local law could help further regulate speed in the area, through methods such as “automated speed enforcement and red-light cameras at key intersections.”

It also calls for the development in 60 days of a complete “Community Traffic Safety” plan for the Windsor Hills/Ladera Heights area that includes a study of possible “road diets to curb excessive speeding.”

Nicole Lorraine Linton, a 37-year-old traveling nurse, is accused of speeding her Mercedes-Benz into the intersection of La Brea and Slauson around 1:40 p.m. Aug. 4, broadsiding a vehicle and causing a fiery, chain-reaction crash that killed 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of Los Angeles, who relatives said was 8 1/2 months pregnant.

Her unborn child, Armani Lester, also died in the crash and is considered a victim, along with Ryan’s 11-month-old son Alonzo Quintero and 24-year-old boyfriend, Reynold Lester of Los Angeles.

They were all in one car, traveling to a pre-natal doctor’s appointment for Ryan, relatives said.

Also killed in the crash were Nathesia Lewis, 43, and her friend 38-year-old Lynette Noble, who were in another car.

Eight other people were also injured.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Mitchell acknowledged the “emotional pain and trauma” the crash caused for the entire Windsor Hills community, and residents beyond that area.

“I live off of La Brea,” she said. “Not in that immediate community, but that’s my main thoroughfare that I traverse in the course of my life. … The Slauson corridor is an area I’m very familiar with and (I) completely feel the anxiety and sense of loss that we heard many callers express today.”

She called traffic fatalities “endemic” in the county, adding, “Black people are dying from them at a disproportionate rate.”

Linton was hospitalized after the crash but survived. She was charged with six counts of murder and five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his office could not file a manslaughter charge in a case involving an unborn child.

Linton’s arraignment is set for Oct. 26. She has a bail review hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

A 64-year-old man was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing an intersection in Fontana on Thursday, Aug. 25.

At about 8 p.m., the man was crossing at Hemlock Avenue and Foothill Boulevard when a car heading west on Foothill hit him, according to the Fontana Police Department. It wasn’t immediately known if the pedestrian was in a crosswalk.

The car, believed to be a gray or gold Honda, fled the area, police said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. He was identified as Seferino Crispin, a Fontana resident.

No arrest has been announced.

Anyone with information should contact the Fontana Police Department traffic unit at 909-350-7700 regarding report 22-13024