LA County Settles With Former Sheriff’s Sergeant in Malibu Park Shooting Suit

LA County Settles With Former Sheriff’s Sergeant in Malibu Park Shooting Suit

by Contributing Editor

A former sheriff’s sergeant has settled the lawsuit he filed against Los Angeles County last November, alleging his supervisors retaliated against him for trying to warn the public that shootings had occurred in and around Malibu Creek State Park before a man was killed there while camping with his daughters in 2018.

Ex-Sgt. Tui Wright was the second member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to file a suit alleging he experienced a backlash for coming forward.

Sheriff’s Lt. James Royal maintains in a separate complaint filed last Sept. 4, also in Los Angeles Superior Court, that he repeatedly advised his bosses to warn people about the shootings before Allergan scientist Tristan Beaudette, 35, was killed at the park on June 22, 2018, while sleeping in a tent with his 2- and 4-year-old daughters.

Wright’s lawyers filed a notice of settlement in his case on Friday. No terms were divulged and it was not immediately clear if the accord is subject to approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Royal’s case is still awaiting trial.

Lawyers for the county alleged in their court papers that any actions taken by LASD management against Wright were done for legitimate reasons and that the former sergeant was fully responsible for his own damages.

According to his court papers, Wright, an LASD veteran of more than three decades who worked at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station as a search-and-rescue team supervisor, and Royal, his detective bureau lieutenant, became aware in January 2017 of three shootings at the park.

According to the Wright lawsuit, the first shooting occurred Nov. 3, 2016, in Tapia Park, and the second and third shootings on Nov. 9, 2016, and Jan. 7, 2017, in Malibu Creek State Park.

Royal, a 25-year sheriff’s department veteran, told his supervisors that the agency needed to warn the public about the initial shootings, the Wright suit stated. However, no warning was issued and Royal’s bosses told him it was a state park problem and not theirs, according to Wright’s court papers.

Four additional shootings occurred in the area, including one just four days before the Beaudette killing, when a Tesla was struck by a bullet at Malibu Creek State Park, the Wright suit stated.

“During the time period when these four additional shootings occurred, (Wright) told Royal that it was his opinion that the incidents were a series of serial crimes committed by a serial shooter and that the public needed to be warned of the danger before someone was killed,” the Wright suit states.

Royal shared the same opinion and recommended to a gathering at the sheriff’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles that a public safety statement be issued, but his suggestion was denied, the Wright suit stated.

After Beaudette was killed, Royal was instructed by his supervisors to state at a town hall meeting that the official position of the sheriff’s department was that the prior shootings were unrelated to his death, the suit stated.

Wright maintained that as punishment for coming forward with Royal about the lack of a warning to the public about the shootings, LASD management subjected him to retaliation that included a job transfer to a less prestigious position at the West Hollywood Station that forced him to drive a greater distance from home. He also alleged he was subjected to an unwarranted Internal Affairs investigation and that he suffered damage to his reputation, all of which forced him to retire earlier than he planned.

Royal similarly maintains in his suit that in retaliation for speaking out, he was transferred from the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station to the Santa Clarita station, a less prestigious assignment, and was stripped of his detective status. He also was subjected to an Internal Affairs investigation under false circumstances that has damaged his reputation, his suit alleges.

Last July, Erica Wu, Beaudette’s widow, and their daughters filed a wrongful death suit against Los Angeles County, also alleging the sheriff’s department failed to warn the public about earlier shootings in the same general area. The case also is awaiting trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Anthony Rauda, a 43-year-old vagrant who lived in the surrounding area, was arrested in October 2018. He is awaiting trial on a charge of murder in Beaudette’s death and also faces 10 counts of attempted murder — Beaudette’s daughters are among the named victims — along with five counts of second-degree commercial burglary involving a series of crimes dating back three years.

Rauda was initially charged in January 2019 with the crimes, then subsequently indicted last October by a Los Angeles County grand jury. He has pleaded not guilty.

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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com