Juvenile’s attorney says family portrayed unfairly
The 15-year-old charged in connection to the murder of Santa Monica teenager Deanna Maran appeared in court for the first time Friday.
A Brentwood teenager, half-sister of the prime suspect, faces charges of battery in the Nov. 17 incident, which has attracted national attention.
Friday was the first time Maran’s parents, Ilja and Harriet, laid eyes on the teenager and her mother, Angelique Bernstein.
No press or outsiders were allowed in the Inglewood courtroom for the proceedings, and the Maran parents were not allowed to speak to the judge except to state their names for the record. No contact was made between the two families. However, the Marans felt they received the cold shoulder from Bernstein.
“I didn’t like what I saw,” said Ilja Maran. “I didn’t see remorseful people.”
The 15-year-old, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor, was allegedly involved in Maran’s murder. She allegedly kicked Maran while her half-sister, Katrina Sarkissian, allegedly stabbed her at a party in an upscale Westwood neighborhood.
According to eyewitnesses in press reports, dozens of people watched while the girls fought and older, college students prevented anyone from rescuing Maran in an attempt to watch the “cat fight.”
Sarkissian died while in police custody on Nov. 18 — the day after the murder. The Los Angeles Coroner’s Office ruled in February that she overdosed on anti-depressants.
Maran was fatally stabbed about an hour after she found the 15-year-old girl damaging property at the home where the party was held, according to friends. Maran told her to stop and the girls began shoving each other. Party goers broke up the fight but another ensued after Sarkissian and her friends showed up. Maran allegedly was attacked in front of the home, where a teenage boy she didn’t know had hosted the party. Apparently, his parents were out of town.
After months of investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, the district attorney’s office charged the 15-year-old girl with one count of battery, a misdemeanor. The DA’s office also charged her with a felony — making a terrorist threat unrelated to the case. Apparently the girl had threatened someone over the Internet months after the party.
The girl is expected in court again May 31 for a pre-trial hearing. The Maran parents got little satisfaction from Friday’s proceedings, which was a standard arraignment — the first appearance before a judge.
Harriet Maran said the girl suspect glanced at her and Ilja while in the courtroom, but the girl’s mother, Angelique Bernstein, stared directly at her.
“There was no shame,” Harriet Maran said. “She looked at me twice and just stared me down.”
The Marans, who raised their four daughters and one son in their Santa Monica Ocean Park home, haven’t heard from the Sarkissians, the Bernsteins or the parents whose home was the scene of the party.
Gary Casselman, the attorney representing the minor, said he won’t try the case in the press and has advised his clients to do the same. He did, however, say his clients’ have equally experienced tragedy as one daughter is dead and the other is facing criminal charges.
The case has caught the attention of local and national media, which Casselman said has been manipulated and has cast his clients in a negative light.
“It’s very tragic,” he said. “They are nice people and they have been portrayed inaccurately and somewhat outrageously.”
Maran, also known affectionately as “Lala,” would have turned 16 years old on April 17, which coincidentally also was the five-month anniversary of her death. The Marans threw a Sweet Sixteen party for their daughter last week where about 50 of her friends and family gathered at the Maran home.
Maran, who stood 5-foot-6 and had the build of an athlete — she was on the water polo and volleyball teams at Santa Monica High School — was known as fearless. She was dubbed by her classmates and friends as “Daring Deanna” and often stood up for other people, even if it meant confrontation.
In pursuit of what they say is justice for the death of their daughter, the Marans have retained Santa Monica lawyer Tony Glassman to pursue civil charges against the family of the girls who had a role in Maran’s death, as well as the family which owns the home where the party was held.
Glassman, who showed up to Friday’s court proceedings but wasn’t allowed in the courtroom, said a civil suit will likely be filed within the next two weeks.
“We hope to give the Marans some satisfaction to find out everything possible about that night,” he told the Daily Press this week. “We are going to take a long, hard look at this to see who is involved.”
“We are going to take a long, hard look at this to see who is involved.” — — TONY GLASSMAN Maran family attorney
Numerous eyewitness accounts by kids attending the party say another girl — a Samohi senior who has since dropped out of school — helped pin Maran down.
LA deputy district attorney Rebecca Noblin has said that police detectives couldn’t link anyone else to the crime based on interviews with witnesses and their investigation.
However, through the civil case, more witnesses could emerge with further information. In addition, criminal charges could still be filed.
“We’ll file the complaint, then get the reports (which are closed), send out subpoenas for witness and get them under oath,” Glassman said. “(The district attorney’s office’s) reaction to us moving forward with this is if we dig up something, we’ll relay it to them.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 27, 2002. Read the original PDF.