> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Lawyers saddle up for showdown over Market crash suits - URL: https://www.smdp.com/lawyers-saddle-up-for-showdown-over-market-crash-suits/ - Published: 2004-01-09T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T03:29:20.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import *Tragic accident finally plays itself out in civil and criminal arenas* DOWNTOWN — Seven months after the July 16 Farmers’ Market crash, legal disputes surrounding the devastating accident are finally gathering momentum in both civil and criminal arenas. On Thursday, civil litigators contended that lawsuits will be filed against City Hall any day now. They argue the city is responsible because it should have known shoppers at the Farmers’ Market were being subjected to danger. City officials have rejected dozens of claims by victims and their families in relation to the crash, maintaining that City Hall had no way of knowing such a horrific accident could occur in the popular marketplace. Meanwhile, driver Russell Weller, 87, who killed 10 people and injured 63 more when he drove his Buick Le Sabre through the crowded market last summer, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 10 felony counts of vehicular manslaughter. The stakes are high in both trials — In the civil lawsuit, untold millions of dollars hang in the balance; in the criminal forum, a decision could have implications for elderly drivers across the nation. Lawyers involved in the cases come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but all have one thing in common — they are widely viewed as among the best in their fields. Here, the Daily Press takes a closer look at some of the key players in both the civil and criminal matters. Working under LA District Attorney Steve Cooley, Deputy DA Ann Rundle will attempt to prove Weller was in control of his car when he drove through the crowded Farmers’ Market on July 16. Rundle has been a Deputy DA for eight years. In that time, she has prosecuted a wide array of felony cases, including a mother who dumped her newborn baby in a dumpster and actress Winona Ryder, who was convicted of shoplifting in a case that garnered national media attention. Rundle is known as a hard-driving, no-nonsense lawyer. “She was very effective in the Winona trial, if a bit strident at times,” said Shepard Kopp, a lawyer with Geragos & Geragos, the high-profile private firm that represented Ryder and also is working on behalf of Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson. “I don’t think she won the case by appealing to the jurors’ emotions in any way.” Elizabeth Ratinoff, the Deputy DA in charge of the Beverly Hills office, said Rundle is defined by her organization. “She is an unbelievably well-prepared, ethical, smart, fabulous trial attorney,” she said. “She is completely devoted to her work and she really gives every case 150 percent.” Jim Bianco, co-counsel for Weller, works out of a small office at 2115 Main St. with a dozen other local attorneys. He will have to show that the carnage on July 16 was an accident and not a crime. As a former prosecutor with the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office, Bianco is no stranger to being on the other side of criminal disputes. But it’s as a defense lawyer that he’s made his living for the last eight years. Bianco successfully kept Cesar Isaac, a Santa Monica man accused of fatally shooting someone in the Pico neighborhood in 1999, off of death row. Isaac is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. Another major case defended by Bianco was one against 17 Greenpeace activists arrested offshore near Vandenberg Air Force base, where they were protesting a missile launch. “The feds really took a hard line in the case,” Bianco said. “We, eventually, after nine months, agreed to misdemeanor charges. They had pushed for felonies.” Mark Overland, who has been a lawyer 39 years, is the oldest and most experienced of the attorneys involved in the Farmers’ Market case. He has successfully defended 14 death penalty cases and argued before both the U.S. and California Supreme Courts. Before moving over to the private sector 23 years ago, Overland worked for 15 years in the public defender’s office for LA County, where he served as chief of trials. For the last two years, Overland has run his own firm out of offices in West LA and at 1717 Fourth St. in Santa Monica. “My last death penalty case was the first federal death penalty case in the central district of California in 50 years,” said Overland, who was named trial lawyer of the year in 2002 by the Criminal Courts Bar Association. “It was the head of the Mexican Mafia.” As the current point person in City Hall for claims and lawsuits related to the Farmers’Market crash, Deputy City Attorney Jeanette Schachtner has already rejected 37 claims against the city. She maintained that the accident was a terrible tragedy, but that the City of Santa Monica had no way of foreseeing what might happen. If City Hall is found liable, it would be responsible for the first $1 million of any verdict. After that, City Hall’s insurance company, AIG Insurance Co. in New York, would arrange for further payments. Immediately following the crash, AIG also retained private attorney Dana Fox from the firm Lynberg & Watkins to represent and work with City Hall. Schachtner has spent her entire 19-year legal career at City Hall. For the last 12 years, she has supervised the six-person civil division of the City Attorney’s Office, handling all types of cases — including numerous wrongful death suits. “Lawyers are prepared to defend the lawsuit,” she said. “The number of lawyers will depend on the number of lawsuits that are filed.” Brian Panish is one of at least two local civil litigators with multiple clients planning to sue City Hall over the July 16 Farmers’ Market crash. He said the city should have known the accident could have occurred and erected some type of barricade to prevent it. Panish, whose partner Geoff Wells is also working the case, is also investigating whether General Motors, manufacturer of Weller’s 1992 Buick Le Sabre, should bear some liability for the accident. He said that model does have problems, but because his team has been unable to investigate Weller’s car, it still has not reached a conclusion. A lawyer for nearly 20 years, Panish, whose office is atop the high-rise tower at Ocean Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, won the largest product liability verdict in 1999 — $4.9 billion against General Motors after a defective model burst into flames when it was rear-ended. He has also been named one of the top-10 litigators in the U.S. Michael Piuze, whose offices are in West LA, is the other key civil litigator working on the Farmers’Market case. He too said City Hall should have known the accident could occur before July 16. “Now, of course,they understand it, but it was such rocket science before they never could of seen it,” Piuze said facetiously. “Well, it ain’t rocket science.” Piuze said the recent decision to try Weller in criminal court may be designed to protect City Hall, because if prosecutors can show Weller was grossly negligent, it would protect the city’s liability. Like Panish, Piuze has been named one of the top-10 litigators in the U.S. Piuze won the largest single-person verdict of all time — $28 billion against Philip Morris for a cancer victim in 2002\. He also has an extensive background in municipal liability legislation. “I don’t have to survey any cities to find out if barricades are a good idea,” he said. “All I have to do is walk a block to the Promenade, because they have them on the Promenade. The City of Santa Monica put removable, metal-encased barriers on the Promenade so cars can’t go on there.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 9, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010904.pdf?ref=smdp.com)