Judge on homeless: Sleep at your own risk
By She lost an eyeball, he was rendered quadriplegic after woman ran them over BY JOHN WOOD Daily Press Staff Writer
More than two years after an out-of-control car struck them as they slept in a Santa Monica beach parking lot, a homeless couple who claimed City Hall was responsible for the accident had their case thrown out of court.
The couple suffered extensive injuries in December of 2000 when a teenager who was learning to drive in the lot at 2030 Barnard Way reportedly swerved to miss a cat and drove through their makeshift bed.
Nancy Safonov lost an eye and many of her teeth, and her skull and right leg were fractured in several places. Mack Turner, her boyfriend, was rendered quadriplegic and had his right leg amputated below the knee.
The couple, both in their 50s, argued in the lawsuit that City Hall was responsible for the accident because the parking lot was supposed to be closed from dusk until dawn but the gate had been left open. They claimed City Hall knew homeless people regularly sleep in the lot and therefore it knowingly endangered them.
But Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor disagreed. Responding to a motion filed by City Hall, Judge Connor dismissed the case earlier this year before it went to trial. It had been scheduled for a 15-day jury trial.
“While the evidence shows that (City Hall) may have and did know that homeless persons frequented the lot, there is no evidence that the lot... had any history of high-risk behavior,” Judge Connor wrote in her ruling.
Irwin Gevurtz, Turner’s attorney, and Kurt Schlichter, Safonov’s attorney, said they were surprised by the ruling but don’t plan to appeal.
“It was like anybody could get into the parking lot over there,” Gevurtz said. “The gate wasn’t down, it wasn’t locked. And it was not monitored.”
Deputy City Attorney Lance Gams said that although the lot is often closed at night, it’s sometimes left open during the holidays for workers at downtown stores, who are shuttled from their jobs to the parking lot. Gams said it would have been difficult to pin liability on City Hall because the accident was unforeseeable.
“This took the aligning of the moon and the sun and the stars,” he said. “It’s not even a rare occurrence — it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
“This took the aligning of the moon and the sun and the stars. It’s not even a rare occurrence — it was a once-in- a-lifetime kind of thing.” — – LANCE GAMS Deputy City Attorney
Turner and Safonov, who had been cited for camping in public two years earlier, were sleeping on a raised bed of concrete in front of a small water treatment building when the accident occurred.
Crystal Williams, who was learning to drive with boyfriend Dmitri Nikitina, lost control of her car, smashed into the plant and ran over the couple while they slept.
The homeless couple sued City Hall, Nikitina and Williams, who was unlicensed and uninsured. Lawyers said the lawsuits sought millions of dollars in past and ongoing medical expenses, and reimbursement for pain and suffering. But shortly after being named in the lawsuit, Nikitina and Williams, both of Los Angeles, declared bankruptcy. As a result, they weren’t pursued for liability.
Safonov, who was born into wealth, and married an MIT student and future USC professor before spending nearly 20 years on the streets, is reportedly staying at a residential rehabilitation center. And Turner, who struggled for years with a crack addiction, is in a nursing home near Claremont.
In the meantime, homeless people regularly camp on the concrete bed where Safonov and Turner were struck, as well as in nearby planters, and on benches in and around Santa Monica’s beach parking lots.
Lance Gams
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Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 5, 2003. Read the original PDF.