Judge: Claim in suit by parents of slain deputy needs shoring up

The parents of a late Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy will have to shore up one of two claims they brought in a lawsuit alleging the amount of overtime the deputy was required to work played a role in his ambush killing in 2023.

Michael and Kim Clinkunbroomer, the plaintiffs in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, maintain that Ryan Clinkunbroomer was too fatigued to stay alert and avoid threats, leading to his fatal shooting outside the Palmdale sheriff's station. The suit alleges a cause of action for battery against accused gunman Kevin Cataneo Salazar and an allegation of state-created danger against the county, Sheriff Robert Luna and two other Sheriff's Department members.

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Clinkunbroomer's parents maintain in the suit originally filed April 3 and revised on July 2 that their son was told to work so much overtime that he was exhausted and could not effectively respond when the 30-year-old Salazar allegedly drove up alongside the deputy's patrol car and shot him in the back of the head on Sept. 16, 2023.

County attorneys argued that there was no state-created danger and that the cause of action should be dismissed. The defense lawyers maintained, among other things, that there was no evidence of "deliberate indifference" on the part of the command staff that told Clinkunbroomer to work so much overtime.

During a hearing Monday, Judge Lynne Hobbs ruled against dismissing the claim, but agreed it needed more facts to support it and gave the Clinkunbroomers' attorneys 20 days to file an amended complaint.

"Here, the allegations of the (lawsuit) repeatedly establish that defendants did not disregard an unreasonable risk to decedent and other deputies, but were effectively compelled to embrace a policy of excessive overtime by the vacant positions and staffing shortages to which the Sheriff's Department was subject," Hobbs wrote.

Salazar is charged with murder that includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle, along with allegations that he personally used and discharged a .22- caliber revolver.

Salazar has entered a dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in connection with the killing. If Salazar is convicted and determined to have been insane at the time of the killing, he would be confined to a state hospital rather than prison.

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