Crash Victim’s Family Alleges Cover-Up

The family of an Oxnard motorcyclist who was killed in a wreck with a Port Hueneme police car has filed court papers accusing the Police Department of lying to cover up an officer’s role in the accident.

Police officials dismissed the allegations and said an investigation that concluded the motorcyclist was at fault was accurate and conducted properly.

“We are faced with these things all the time,” Port Hueneme Police Chief John Hopkins said.

“We are always being accused of doing something wrong in these situations.”

Jeanmarc Y. Pena, 39, had just left the Sea Rounders bar in Oxnard at closing time Dec. 7 on a black, 1983 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, when a police cruiser slammed into him.

Pena died in a hospital two weeks later without ever regaining consciousness.

An Oxnard Police Department investigation of the accident concluded that Pena ran a red light at Ventura Road and Channel Islands Boulevard and was broadsided by a cruiser driven by Officer Paul Anthony Gomez.

A blood sample taken from Pena after the accident showed that the motorcyclist was drunk and may have used cocaine, county coroner’s officials said.

Pena was driving on a suspended license and had been convicted twice before of drunk driving, court records show.

Court documents filed Monday allege that Gomez ran the red light and ask a judge to force Gomez, another officer and three other potential witnesses to be deposed so the family can prepare to file a lawsuit.

The family cannot file suit until the city of Port Hueneme takes action on a claim filed in January. In any such claim, the city has six months to pay or reject.

The police report quotes eyewitness Kevin Branson saying he saw Pena run the red light.

But in a statement filed with the court documents Monday, Branson says he saw the police car run the light.

A judge is set to rule on the motion March 28.