Jury awards family $2.1 million

Jenny Marder

The mother of Antonio Saldivar, the teenager who was shot by a

Huntington Beach Police officer in the Oak View neighborhood two

years ago, was awarded $2.1 million by a federal jury last week.

The jury sided with Saldivar’s family on Friday and determined

that Officer Mark Wersching violated Saldivar’s civil rights and

acted unreasonably when he shot and killed the 18-year-old.

Wersching was searching for a burglary suspect he had been chasing

through Huntington Beach’s Oak View neighborhood in the early-morning

hours of May 5, 2001, when he spotted Saldivar.

Wersching, who said he mistook Saldivar for the crime suspect,

contends that when he told Saldivar to raise his hands, the boy

instead pointed what turned out to be a toy gun at him. Wersching

fired eight rounds of shots at Saldivar, who died within the hour.

Saldivar’s mother, Epifania Huertero, sued for funeral expenses

and the value of her son’s estate. She also sued for the loss of

love, companionship, moral support and financial support her son

would have given her throughout his life.

“It was a sad case all the way around,” said Hector Salitrero, an

attorney representing Saldivar’s family.

The jury found that Saldivar was complying with the officer when

he was killed. Wersching, a seven-year veteran of the force, is still

on active duty.

“We talked to the jury and they said it was a very difficult

case,” Salitrero said. “The jury said that the more reasonable thing

to have done, instead of confronting Saldivar, was to have waited for

his partner, who was already on his way there. He was wrong in

confronting. He could have waited. They could have together addressed

the situation.”

Neal Moore, the attorney representing the city, said that he was

“very surprised” by the jury’s verdict.

“I think the evidence demonstrated that Wersching had reasonable

fear for his own life at the time that he shot Mr. Saldivar,” Moore

said. “If he was in fear for his own life, the law allows, and his

training requires that he defend himself.

Before the hearing, both sides met to mediate, but Huertero

rejected two settlement offers from the city for $150,000 and

$250,000, said Federico Sayre, another attorney representing

Saldivar’s family.

Moore declined to comment on whether the city plans to appeal

Friday’s decision.

The family is also pushing to have the city recover a portion of

Huertero’s attorney’s fees. Another hearing, which Sayre said will be

held in the next two weeks, will focus on whether the city failed to

supervise and train Wersching.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.