Final Witnesses Testify in Suit Against Torrance Police

Lawyers for a San Pedro man rested their civil case against the Torrance Police Department on Thursday, five years to the day after the man’s teen-age son died as a result of a traffic collision with an off-duty Torrance police sergeant. John Rastello’s attorneys are scheduled to return to Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday to give closing arguments in their lawsuit against the Torrance Police Department, Sgt. Rollo Green and eight of his colleagues.

Rastello’s suit charges that Green was driving drunk and made an illegal left-hand turn on Aug. 30, 1984, causing the collision that killed Kelly Rastello, 19. Rastello died early the morning of Aug. 31.

During the five-week trial, attorneys for the plaintiff argued that Green’s fellow officers covered up for him as part of a pattern of concealing police misconduct.

The final witness of the trial was one of John Rastello’s seven surviving children, Gayle Rivers, 39. Rivers told the jury that her father had been deeply traumatized by his perception that Torrance police were hiding the facts surrounding Kelly’s death.

Rivers was called to rebut testimony Tuesday by Dr. Saul Faerstein, a psychiatrist called by the defense. Faerstein told the jury that Rastello was traumatized by his son’s death, not by the purported cover-up.

Attorneys Browne Greene and Brian Panish on Thursday called traffic collision expert and former California Highway Patrol Officer Warren Clark as their only other rebuttal witness.

Clark told the jury that he stands by his earlier estimate that Kelly Rastello was riding his motorcycle at between 40 and 45 m.p.h. before he slammed on his rear brake and crashed into the side of Green’s truck.

The defense last week called its own expert, Harry Hurt, who testified that Rastello was speeding at 57 m.p.h., 22 m.p.h. over the posted limit. Hurt also told jurors that Rastello could have stopped in time, even at the higher speed, if he had applied both his brakes.

But Clark disagreed. He testified that the crash was caused by Green’s inattention and that Rastello’s motorcycle was clearly visible for at least four seconds before impact.

“There is literally nothing there that blocks his view,” Clark said of Green. “The impetuous turning movement is the direct cause of this collision.”

Clark had testified earlier that Green received exceptional treatment in Torrance, since almost all left-turning vehicles are held to blame when they collide with through traffic. He stood by that position, even after confronted with a list of accidents that the defense said were blamed on through traffic.

Hurt said the defense analysis was misleading because it included collisions that were nothing like the Rastello-Green crash. But on cross-examination, he admitted that his own research had also included accidents that were nothing like the case at hand.