Preschool lawsuit takes another dramatic turn

Mathis Winkler

COSTA MESA -- One day after an Orange County Superior Court judge

ruled that a preschool center and its former director were not liable in

the deaths of two children, the U.S. Postal Service confirmed Wednesday

that a mail carrier did run into the school about three years before the

murders.

The earlier accident had been central to the lawsuit filed by the

parents of Sierra Soto, 4, and Brandon Wiener, 3, who were killed when

Steven Allan Abrams attacked the center’s playground in May 1999. Abrams

was sentenced to life without parole in December.

In a lawsuit similar to the one against the center, a judge in

December ruled against the families and in favor of First Baptist Church

of Costa Mesa, which owns the ground of the center.

And a civil suit against Abrams ended with the Soto and Wiener

families, as well as the family of another child injured during the

attack, splitting Abrams’ $60,000 in insurance money after he declined to

defend the lawsuit.

The children’s mothers, whose lawsuit alleged that knowledge of the

earlier accident could have prevented the deaths, said Wednesday they had

tried to find out about the incident after one of the center’s neighbors

testified that the postal truck accident had taken place.

Pamela Wiener, Brandon’s mother, said the postal service’s admission

showed parents should have been informed of the previous incident, which

apparently took place sometime in 1996.

“If there was a cover-up, that person should be held accountable,”

Wiener said. “We should have been told that there was a previous

incident. . . . We want to be able to heal, but our children are gone.

They are not coming back. We want some answers.”

The center’s director, who closed the preschool in Sept. 1999 as a

result of the murders, said she didn’t start working at Southcoast Early

Childhood Learning Center until June 1997.

“I wasn’t even there,” said Sheryl Hawkinson, adding that the previous

owner had not told her about the 1996 accident.

The previous owner, who still runs a preschool on Costa Mesa’s

Eastside, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

While Hawkinson said Tuesday’s court ruling was “bittersweet,” she

added that she had hoped to support the children’s families rather than

fighting them in a lawsuit.

“As I’m sitting here right now, looking into the eyes of my baby, I

think about how sad it is for those parents that they can’t look into

their children’s eyes,” she said, choking back tears. “And all because of

a decision one man made. I do love [the parents] as I love their

children.”

Cindy Soto, Sierra’s mother, responded that Hawkinson should help the

families find out the truth about the 1996 accident.

Hawkinson should “help us find out what happened,” Soto said. “Instead

of sitting there and being the victim. She didn’t lose a child. . . .

Let’s find out the truth. That’s all I want, because I don’t want this to

happen again. . . . I wish I could say, ‘Never mind.’ I just can’t.”

In April, former Costa Mesa resident Noel Ulriksen testified that a

postal truck had run into the playground at some point in 1996.

“The mail truck bounced up over the curb and went through the fence

and came to rest at the tree inside the yard,” Ulriksen testified,

according to a written transcript of the deposition.

He also said he saw a center official try to fix the damage to the

fence after the accident occurred.

“He was trying to tie the fence up in there,” Ulriksen said. “And I

asked him if he needed some plastic ties, and I went over to my garage

and got the plastic ties for them. . . . He wanted to hurry up and get it

fixed before any parents came by.”

But postal officials said the fence had actually stopped the truck.

The carrier, not wearing a seat belt, had fallen out of the vehicle.

The truck “stopped at the curb,” said Terri Bouffiou, a spokeswoman

for the U.S. Postal Service, adding that Costa Mesa postal service

officials had told her about the accident from memory.

“It did not go through the fence,” Bouffiou said. “The carrier was at

fault.”

She added that in all certainty, the carrier would have been fired or

at least suspended.

“Not only did he damage the vehicle, but he broke a zillion rules,”

Bouffiou said, adding that she could not disclose the carrier’s name.

But Soto said the postal service’s explanation didn’t satisfy her.

“I still believe that [the truck] went through” the fence, she said.

“I believe the details in [Ulriksen’s] deposition. I don’t see why an

individual would come forward and say that if it weren’t true. . . . I

just want the truth. Can’t they just tell the truth?”

Costa Mesa Police Department officials, who have said in the past that

no report on a 1996 accident at the center exists, said the only accident

at the center involved cars in June 1997 and did not do any damage to the

playground, according to the report.

“We may have never been called on it,” said Sgt. Dale Birney, the

department’s spokesman, adding that accidents involving postal trucks

usually led to a police report. “If we were [called] and if we don’t have

any record, it might be something that we might be interested in looking

at.”

Wiener’s attorney said Wednesday he and the lawyers for the other

families would file an appeal against Tuesday’s ruling.

“The question is, is it foreseeable that a car might come crashing

into these people,” said Evan Ginsburg, adding that his team would try to

prove the playground was exposed to car crashes both intentional and

unintentional.

But “when you’re in a tragic case like this, the vision is somewhat

clouded,” he said. “Maybe the judge is right, and I’m wrong. . . . It’s

very possible I’m wrong.”