$780,000 Awarded in Son’s Shooting Death

The parents of an Eagle Rock teen-ager shot to death by police after a high-speed chase in 1978 were awarded $780,000 Wednesday by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury.

The unanimous verdict on behalf of Kenneth and Janet Moser was against the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Police Officers Bill Dunn and Robert Depwig. Dunn has been on disability retirement for several years due to a back injury sustained in a subsequent automobile accident. Depwig is still on the force.

Jurors in the court of Judge Ricardo Torres assessed damages at $975,000 but subtracted 20% of that amount, ruling that 18-year-old Mark Moser contributed that much to his own death.

The attorney for the Moser family, Harry F. Scolinos, said the youth was shot to death June 22, 1978, after his pickup collided with an undercover police car at the end of a stakeout and chase.

Scolinos said Moser eluded police when they first tried to stop his pickup after reports of cars racing down Eagle Rock streets, after his sister’s high school graduation. The attorney said police then staked out a house where Moser was attending a graduation party and followed him as he drove away.

Moser lost control of the pickup and went into a dirt lot, braking and swerving just as the police car stopped in front of him, the family attorney said. After the pickup struck the police car, Dunn fired two shots through the truck’s windshield, killing Moser. The accident caused a total of $300 damage to the two vehicles, Scolinos said.

Deputy City Atty. Philip J. Sugar argued that Dunn fired in self-defense, believing Moser was attacking him with the pickup truck and that his life was in danger.

Sugar also introduced evidence that Moser had smoked two cigarettes laced with PCP earlier in the evening.

Sugar said he will ask Torres to grant a new trial, the first step in the appeal process, based partially on Torres’ refusal to admit more detailed evidence about the effects of PCP, evidence of Moser’s previous arrest for burglary and evidence that he had earlier tried to commit suicide.

Sugar said such evidence would not affect the city’s liability for the shooting but could convince a jury to reduce the amount of damages or increase the degree of Moser’s contributory negligence.