CHP Is Cleared as Jury OKs Award in Killing by Officer

The family of a college student murdered during a traffic stop by a then-CHP officer was awarded $7.5 million in damages Wednesday, but the California Highway Patrol was cleared of any responsibility in the killing.

Although the award was significant, the verdict returned by a Superior Court jury was a setback for the family of Cara Knott, 20, who was strangled by Craig Peyer on Dec. 27, 1986. Peyer is the first CHP officer convicted of murder while on duty.

The Knotts were hoping the CHP would be found negligent for hiring Peyer, 40, and failing to adequately supervise him.

Although the jury found Peyer wholly responsible for the young woman’s death, the chances of her family recovering any money from him “are somewhere around zero,” said Brian Monaghan, the Knotts’ attorney.

Knott’s parents, Sam and Joyce Knott, said they were not pursuing the lawsuit to profit from their daughter’s death. Any money awarded to them would be donated to a crime victims fund and used to establish a scholarship fund in Cara Knott’s memory for students wishing to become schoolteachers, they said .

“We’re pursuing this lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing the CHP to make appropriate changes, so they can better supervise and monitor their patrol officers. If they had done this with Peyer, Cara would have never become a victim,” Sam Knott had said in an earlier interview.

The jury on Wednesday rejected the family’s argument that CHP officials and Peyer’s supervisors were also culpable for Knott’s death through their inadequate supervision.

Jurors also rejected an argument that Peyer’s supervisors should have known that he presented a danger to the public because of several complaints they received about him from women motorists.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Randall Christison, who represented the CHP at the monthlong trial, said he was not surprised by the jury’s findings.

“The CHP is an exceptional organization of very honorable people doing a good job,” said Christison.

Peyer, a CHP officer for 13 years, was convicted of first-degree murder on June 22, 1988, and is serving 25 years to life in state prison. He killed Knott during a nighttime stop at the isolated Mercy Road off-ramp and Interstate 15 in north San Diego County.