Thread: Suit over slain Oceanside officer's vest goes to trial

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14208911/

Suit over slain Oceanside officer's vest goes to trial

By SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer
NCTimes.net
He was not aware, Jamie Zeppetella added, of the dangers he faced as a result of decisions that may have left him with a bullet-resistant vest that may have failed him.Whether Tony Zeppetella's vest actually failed remains in dispute, and is a central question for a jury to decide in a civil trial scheduled to begin this week to resolve a lawsuit Jamie Zeppetella filed against companies involved with making the vest ---- Second Chance Body Armor and Toyobo Co.

A spokesman for Toyobo, the maker of Zylon, a fiber used in the ballistic panels of Tony Zeppetella's bullet-resistant vest, said .evidence shows the bullet that killed Tony Zeppetella did not penetrate the vest and that Zylon fiber performed as it should have.

Jamie Zeppetella's attorney, Greg Emerson, disagreed, saying in recent interviews that the vest had a hole in it that should not be there, and that a vest made with other material, such as Kevlar, would have stopped the bullet that killed the police officer.

Jurors at the upcoming trial also are likely to hear evidence about officials from Toyobo and the vest manufacturer, Second Chance Body Armor, discussing potentially deadly problems with Zylon vests long before Zeppetella was shot, but not removing the vests from the market, Emerson said in recent interviews.

John T. Griffin, the attorney for Second Chance Body Armor, which manufactured the vest, did not respond to telephone messages requesting an interview about the upcoming trial.

Judge Michael Anello is scheduled to hear motions Tuesday to resolve disputes about what evidence will be presented to the jury that will hear the trial. The process of picking a jury is expected to begin Wednesday, with opening statements from the attorneys likely to occur Thursday, Emerson said.

Was the vest penetrated?

Jamie Zeppetella's lawsuit is reaching a jury trial more than three years after a traffic stop June 13, 2003, in the parking lot of the Navy Federal Credit Union at Avenida de la Plata and College Boulevard in Oceanside turned into a gunbattle that left Tony Zeppetella, 27, dead from 13 gunshot wounds.

Adrian George Camacho, 30, was later convicted of Zeppetella's murder and was sentenced to death for the crime.

In a June pretrial hearing in the civil case against Toyobo and Second Chance, Anello wrote that only three shots had contact with Tony Zeppetella's vest, including one that the vest stopped. One of the shots, identified in court documents as C-1, was the only bullet that killed Zeppetella, Anello wrote.

Toyobo's defense against Jamie Zeppetella's lawsuit has focused on that shot.

In a motion filed recently with the court, Toyobo said its expert was allowed to conduct a thorough examination of the vest July 13 and concluded that the bullet penetrated only five of the 24 layers of the ballistic panel in the vest before going out of the vest. Toyobo also argues that an expert hired by Emerson has said that if the bullet exited the edge of the vest, he could not say the vest failed, and that the lawsuit should be dismissed.

"It did not penetrate the vest," Toyobo's U.S. spokesman, Kent Jarrell, said of the gunshot. "The vest did what it was supposed to do. It did what it was certified by the federal government to do. There's no evidence that Officer Zeppetella's vest failed or that Zylon was a factor in this tragic murder."

Emerson said the number of layers of the panel that the bullet went through does not matter, but that his expert does not agree that it only went through five layers.

"The bottom line is there is a hole in the vest," Emerson said. "What it did to the individual layers of the panel is irrelevant."

Widow eager for jury to hear case

Jamie Zeppetella has alleged in her lawsuit against Toyobo and Second Chance that Toyobo conducted tests that showed Zylon retained only 35 percent of its strength when exposed to visible light for six months. The tests also showed that Zylon weakened faster when exposed to the heat and humidity generated by an officer's body during normal wear of a bulletproof vest, according to the lawsuit.

Toyobo notified vest manufacturers, including Second Chance, of that data in 2001, two years before Tony Zeppetella was shot, the lawsuit alleged.

Jarrell said "there was some level of degradation" and that Toyobo regularly notified vest manufacturers of the characteristics of Zylon fiber.

"We felt it was still a good ballistic product," Jarrell said. "We did not pull it from the market. ... We felt it was proper for ballistic uses when it was properly designed by the manufacturers. We don't make bullet-resistant vests."

Jamie Zeppetella said in an interview last year that her husband had told her the Zylon vest he would wear as a police officer was lightweight, flexible and as protective as other vests, and that she did not learn of potential problems with the vest until three or four months after his death.

She said last week that she was eager for a jury to see the case she and Emerson have to present.

"Everybody can just see all the evidence we have of the really bad decisions these companies made," Zeppetella said.

Letters noted problems

Among the witnesses Emerson said he plans to call is Aaron Westrick, a former research director at Second Chance who wrote a memo Dec. 18, 2001, to Richard Davis, the founder of Second Chance and its president at the time, about the "Zylon situation." Westrick wrote that Second Chance should "immediately notify our customers of the degradation problems we are experiencing" with the Zylon vest models and that "lives and our credibility are at stake."

Davis testified at a deposition that he did not recall receiving that memo, but that Westrick had urged him in conversations to notify customers of the problem of Zylon losing strength.

Another piece of evidence jurors may see is a July 29, 2002, letter in which Davis wrote that Second Chance faced two problems: that Zylon seemed to be getting weaker faster than other material used in body armor and that newer ammunition was being promoted to the public.

In that letter, Davis wrote that the company's "options" for solutions included "operating as though nothing is wrong until one of our customers is killed or wounded" or "some other entity exposes the Zylon problem."

Davis has testified in a deposition that in response to his letter, the company "changed paths," agreeing to do extensive testing on Zylon vests to figure out what was wrong. But the company did not recall any vests or directly advise police officers of concerns about them, Davis testified.

Second Chance Body Armor filed for bankruptcy in October 2004 in the wake of several lawsuits related to its Zylon vests. It later sold all of its assets to Armor Holdings Inc. for $45 million.

Among the other lawsuits against Second Chance and Toyobo is a case the U.S. Department of Justice filed to recover federal funds spent to help law enforcement officers and agencies buy bullet-resistant vests. That lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

In documents filed in that case, Davis and his attorney wrote that he was advised earlier this year that federal officials also have launched a criminal investigation, have impaneled and grand jury, and that criminal charges against him are "imminent."

Charles Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, declined to comment on whether a criminal investigation is taking place and said he is unaware of any charges having been filed yet against Davis or other company officials.

Jamie Zeppetella said her goal is to have Second Chance and Toyobo held accountable for their actions.

"(Camacho) pulled the trigger, but Tony went into his profession knowing about people like Camacho," she said. "That's why he wore a bulletproof vest. But he had no idea there were people like Second Chance and Toyobo out there that were putting on him something that was going to fail."

Jarrell said many shots were fired in close proximity in an "ugly, violent situation" for which Camacho was convicted, and that there is no evidence that Tony Zeppetella's vest failed.

"That's where the blame lies, with the man sitting on death row," Jarrell said.

Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.

Links:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07 ... 7_7_06.txt

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06 ... 6_8_06.txt

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/02 ... 101136.txt

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/08 ... _24_05.txt

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/07 ... _13_05.txt

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04 ... _20_05.txt

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/02 ... 194524.txt

Gee, no mention that Camacho was a multiply convicted, multiply deported Mexican gang banging, thug scumbag. This must have clearly been an accidental omission on their part. Oh wait, virtually every single news outlet in San Diego did the same thing, when reporting on his arrest, trial, conviction, and death sentence, refused to point out that the cold blooded killer Camacho was an illegal alien.