Motel pays $100,000 to daughter of one of two police officers killed in El Monte – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Although a judge had previously dismissed most of a class-action lawsuit brought by the relatives of two El Monte police officers who were shot and killed by a felon in 2022, she on Friday approved a tentative $100,000 settlement between the minor daughter of an officer and the owners of the motel where the shootings occurred.

In her previous ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Hwang said family members of the deceased officer, Joseph Santana, had presented no evidence that a breach of duty on the part of Los Angeles County, its district attorney and its probation department was a “proximate cause” of the deaths of the officers. Those defendants were dismissed from the case in January.

Santana and Officer Michael Paredes responded to a report of a stabbing on June 14, 2022, at the Siesta Inn, where Justin Flores was staying with his wife. The relatives also sued the motel. On Friday, the judge granted a $100,000 settlement by the motel owners to the 11-year-old daughter of Santana’s widow, Sasha Santana.

After legal fees and other expenses, the girl will receive $74,360. Additional preliminary settlements related to the motel are subject to future hearings before Hwang.

The lawsuits filed by the families of Santana and Paredes were consolidated last August and filed against Los Angeles County, District Attorney George Gascón and his office, and the county’s probation department. The claims included involuntary manslaughter, negligence and breach of a mandatory duty, and negligence on the part of the motel.

Flores, 35, was released on parole in 2021 as part of a plea agreement after being arrested in 2020 for possession of a firearm and methamphetamine. Although Flores had a previous burglary conviction, Gascón issued an order prohibiting the prosecutor handling Flores’ case from filing charges against him, the lawsuit says.

In doing so, Gascón violated California’s “three strikes” law, which requires prosecutors to cite known past violations, the lawsuit says.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that if Gascón had followed the law, Flores would have been sentenced to prison. After his release on parole in March 2021, Flores was seen by his parole officer only once — when he should have been attending monthly check-ups — and parole department members never initiated desertion proceedings, as their own policies required, which would have resulted in parole revocation, the lawsuit says.

On June 2, 2022, the probation officer conducted a phone check-in with Flores after learning that he was in illegal possession of a gun and had struck a woman. However, Flores failed to show up for an appointment four days later and his probation officer never reported the information to law enforcement, the lawsuit states.

The probation officer had filed a motion to revoke Flores’ probation the day before the shooting, but Flores was not taken into custody, the lawsuit says. Flores died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.