Tenants are suing for more than $1M after 2000 assault
SM COURTHOUSE — A lawsuit levied by a couple who were assaulted by four gunmen in their seaside apartment got underway Friday in a courtroom here.
Lawyers made their opening arguments in the case midday, with the plaintiffs’ attorney asking jurors to find landlord Marvin Engineering Co. Inc. responsible for damages that will likely exceed $1 million.
Oliver Starr, a 36-year-old former bike racer and sales consultant, and his ex-girlfriend, Julien Serrano, were held at gunpoint on Aug. 18, 2000, in their luxury Sunset Boulevard apartment in Pacific Palisades. The gunmen, who were apparently in the wrong apartment, reportedly demanded $30,000 in cash and beat Starr.
Attorney Blaine Greenberg said the landlords of 17351 Sunset Blvd. should pay Starr and Serrano for lost wages and emotional trauma caused by the assault because they knew from previous incidents the building was unsafe and failed to repair it. He said both the elevator lock and several fire doors in the luxury building were broken.
“If the defendants had spent $1,950 to repair all the broken elevator floor key locks... this attack would not have taken place,” he said in his opening statement, Attorney Gilbert Garcia, who represents Marvin Engineering, disputed claims that the $4,500-a-month apartment was advertised to the couple as high security. He indicated that the gunmen would have gotten into the apartment by whatever means necessary.
“There were... four people who were intent to get in — and they did,” said Garcia, who was accompanied by Jennifer Lechter, a resident of the building and the company’s director of real estate. Lechter also is the daughter of Marvin Engineering’s co-owner.
What’s more, although Starr and Serrano are suing for emotional damages and trauma, Garcia said no documents or medical records of those conditions exist. And Garcia said Lechter, who met with the couple the evening of the break-in, could see no visible effects of the assault.
“This attack was not only predictable, but easily and inexpensively avoidable.” — adding, – BLAINE GREENBERG Plaintiffs’ attorney
“This attack was not only predictable, but easily and inexpensively avoidable.”
The landlords are countersuing for a total of $42,101 in losses, claiming they lost out on $37,800 after the couple broke their two-year lease to rent a house in Venice and spent another $2,301 on broker and move-out fees.
After opening statements, witnesses for the plaintiffs began to take the stand. By the day’s close, fellow tenant Tamy Soussana, whose apartment was broken into three months before the assault, as well as a police officer and Starr had taken the witness stand.
The trial, which is being heard by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Valerie Baker, will resume Tuesday. It is expected to last another 10 days.
Although the key issue in the case is whether the landlord was negligent in the security of the building, the details of the assault have at times taken center stage. During opening statements, Greenberg recreated the 20-minute ordeal, which he said began with two gunmen storming through the front door and the other two bursting through the patio door simultaneously.
Starr, Serrano and two female lunch guests were then tied up, and the three women were dragged to a back bedroom, where Serrano was groped and threatened with rape, Greenberg told jurors. Starr, whose head was covered with a blanket, was pistol-whipped by assailants, who also demanded $30,000 in cash.
The gunmen might have had the wrong apartment, Greenberg said. During the course of the attack, they repeatedly called Starr “Matt,” a reported drug dealer who also lived in the building but had fled in the middle of the night one month earlier for unknown reasons. The entire assault ended after Starr directed the gunmen to $300 in his wallet, where they probably discovered his real identity, Greenberg said.
That’s when the room got quiet, he told jurors.
“Oliver heard one of the men say, ‘Be cool. Some motherf--ker sent us to the wrong place,’” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 12, 2004. Read the original PDF.