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# Market crash victims wait to be heard in civil case
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/market-crash-victims-wait-to-be-heard-in-civil-case/
- Published: 2007-03-27T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T00:18:30.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import

*Victims’ civil suit awaits a day in Los Angeles Court*

DOWNTOWN, L.A. Victims of the deadly Farmers’ Market crash will have to wait until October before they can have their day in court following a decisions last week by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to delay trial once again because of an inability to interview the driver responsible, George Russell Weller.

Judge William A. MacLaughlin vacated the May 17 trial date and rescheduled a new date for Oct. 9, more than four years after Weller drove his 1992 Buick LeSabre through a crowded market, killing 10 and injuring more than 65 others.

MacLaughlin also set a status conferences for June 20 to determine, among other things, whether or not the case will proceed to trial without Weller’s testimony. So far he has refused to give a deposition because he is appealing his criminal conviction. Weller, 90, was found guilty of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in October of 2006\. He was sentenced to five years probation.

Attorneys for the victims had previously asked the prosecutor in the criminal case to grant Weller what is known as “use immunity” to allow him to testify in the civil case, however, that request was denied.

This is at least the third time a judge has postponed the trial because of Weller’s refusal to give a deposition.

Among the first group of civil suits to be argued will be one regarding the wrongful death of Movsha Hoffman and for serious injuries sustained by his wife, Esther Hoffman. All of the civil suits involving more than 40 plaintiffs have been consolidated by the court under the lead case of Supino versus the City of Santa Monica and Bayside District Corp.

Plaintiffs claim City Hall and Bayside, a public-private partnership that helps local government manage and promote downtown, should be held liable for the accident since the market, which is held every Wednesday and Saturday on Arizona Avenue at Third Street, was under their control.

Lawyers for City Hall are appealing a decision to be included in the case on grounds that it was not in charge of operating the market. City Hall was partially cleared last year when a Santa Monica judge granted it “design immunity,” saying city officials had put in place a properly designed and officially approved traffic management plan for the area surrounding the market.

Weller, who was 86 at the time of the July 16, 2003 crash, was driving west on Arizona Avenue when he rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz. He drove away from the accident in an attempt to flee, witnesses at his criminal trial said, and ended up driving straight into the market, sending shoppers flying into the air as they bounced off his car.

It was the worst traffic accident in the city’s history and sparked national debate on how to better monitor elderly drivers.

Attorneys for Weller said in his criminal trial that the retired food broker lost control of his car as a result of “pedal error” and the deployment of his airbag.

Prosecutors argued that Weller, a Santa Monica resident, was trying to flee the scene of an accident and deliberately drove through the market, avoiding parked trucks while swerving in the direction of shoppers.

Weller drove more than 900 feet at speeds up to 60 mph before his car came to rest at the west end of the market. Investigators said the car stopped only because a woman had been trapped underneath, her body serving as a human brake.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 27, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/032707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)