Parents want apology from Sarkissian family
The parents of a 17-year-old girl who died in police custody after fatally stabbing a Santa Monica High School sophomore have dropped their lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.
After speaking with detectives, Angelique Bernstein and Sarkis Sarkissian, the parents of Katrina Sarkissian, decided not to pursue wrongful death charges against police, their lawyer said. Katrina Sarkissian overdosed on antidepressants the day after she stabbed 15-year-old Deanna Maran in November of 2001.
“My clients wanted to find out what had happened and the city refused to provide the information, and we had to get into litigation to discover it,” attorney Gary Cassleman said. “And once my client heard from one of the detectives, she determined that there was no basis to continue to pursue the LAPD.
“We couldn’t prove any (liability),” he added. “And, of course, you have to proceed with evidence.”
With that case dropped, there remains one outstanding lawsuit relating to Maran’s death. Maran’s parents settled a lawsuit against Angelique Bernstein for $300,000 in November. They are now pursuing Sarkis Sarkissian, her ex-husband, in appeals court. Sarkis Sarkissian was let off the hook by a judge because he didn’t have custody of Katrina Sarkissian at the time of the stabbing.
“We’re in this because they don’t want to claim any responsibility — they don’t want to accept that they raised a daughter this way,” said Harriet Maran, Deanna Maran’s mother. “Why can’t they say, ‘We’re sorry. We’re very sorry’... Say you’re sorry and we can go on with our life.”
Katrina Sarkissian stabbed Deanna Maran on Nov. 17, 2001, at an unsupervised teenage party in Westwood, after Deanna Maran got into an altercation with Sarkissian’s 15-year-old half sister. Harriet Maran said her daughter’s death was the result of Katrina Sarkissian and her half-sister not accepting responsibility for provoking the fight in the first place — and added Sarkis Sarkissian also wants to skirt responsibility.
“Now it continues and the parents don’t say they’re sorry and that’s why we’re in this mess, that’s why the whole world is in this mess,” said Harriet Maran. “How can you expect these children to have any responsibility when their parents don’t accept responsibility?”
Bernstein and Sarkis Sarkissian’s lawsuit against the LAPD alleged their daughter would have survived had detectives immediately summoned paramedics when she collapsed during questioning. It also alleged the detectives should have observed odd behavior from the teenager as the drugs kicked in, especially since Bernstein told police that her daughter was prescribed the pills.
Katrina Sarkissian and her half-sister were picked up by police at 1:55 p.m. on Nov. 18, the day after Deanna Maran’s murder. Paramedics were called within 45 minutes after she collapsed in police custody. Katrina Sarkissian allegedly told detectives that she felt sleepy during the interview. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office ruled that Sarkissian had overdosed on antidepressant capsules taken before she left her Brentwood home with detectives. Sarkissian took 43 capsules — twice the average fatal dose — of Nortriptyline, a prescription antidepres-sant, an autopsy showed.
LA Deputy City Attorney Geoffrey Plowden said police possess certain immunities when responding to life and death situations, particularly because of possible lawsuits. If they didn’t have immunity, paramedics and police would be hesitant to attempt to save anyone’s life for fear of being sued, Plowden added.
Plowden has decided not to pursue attorney fees, which he estimated were between $10,000 and $20,000.
“It’s over,” he said. “We, I suppose, could have pursued trying to recover costs for defending the lawsuit, but we chose not to because the plaintiff decided to voluntarily drop the lawsuit.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 28, 2004. Read the original PDF.