Motel to Pay $100K to Daughter of One of Two El Monte Officers Killed

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Although a judge previously dismissed most of a consolidated lawsuit brought by relatives of two El Monte police officers fatally shot by a felon in 2022, Friday she approved a $100,000 tentative settlement involving the minor daughter of one officer with 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 late Officer Joseph Santana provided no evidence that a breach of a mandatory duty on the part of Los Angeles County, its district attorney and its Probation Department was a "proximate cause" of the officers' deaths. 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 gave the nod to a $100,000 annuity settlement payment by the motel owners to the 11-year- old daughter of Santana's widow, Sasha Santana.

When attorneys' fees and other expenses are deducted, the girl will receive $74,360. Other tentative settlements involving the motel are pending future hearings before Hwang.

The suits by families of Santana and Paredes were consolidated last August and named Los Angeles County, District Attorney George Gascón and his office and the county Probation Department. The claims included wrongful death, negligence and breach of a mandatory duty, as well as negligence by the motel.

Flores, 35, was placed on probation in a plea deal in 2021 after he was arrested in 2020 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and methamphetamine. Even though Flores had a prior felony conviction for burglary, Gascón issued a directive barring the prosecutor handling Flores' case from filing a strike allegation against him, the suit stated.

In doing so, Gascón disregarded California's "three strikes" law, which requires prosecutors to plead prior known strikes, the suit stated.

The plaintiffs' attorneys maintained that if Gascón had followed the law, Flores would have been sentenced to prison. After being put on probation in March 2021, Flores was only seen by his probation officer once -- although he was supposed to have monthly check-ins -- and Probation Department members never initiated a desertion proceeding as their own policies required, which would have forced a probation revocation, the suit stated.

On June 2, 2022, the probation officer completed a phone check-in with Flores after learning he was in illegal possession of a gun and had beaten a woman, but Flores did not show up for an appointment four days later and his probation officer never reported the information to law enforcement, the suit stated.

The probation officer filed for a revocation of Flores' probation a day before the shootings, but Flores was not taken into custody, the suit stated. Flores had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.