Zac Has His Day in Court—Closing Arguments

Carol Champommier asked her brother to move up front in the courtroom Thursday morning and sit with her. The 60 people filling the courtroom made it at capacity, and people were even sitting where the jury would have been sitting.    

Champommier and Eric Avery Feldman have filed a lawsuit against the United States and named Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and Los Angeles Sherriff Lee Baca because a federal agent shot her son to death in a parking lot in Studio City.  

The government says that the shooting on June 24, 2010 was reasonable and  that 18-year-old Zac Champommier tried to run down an officer with the Toyota sedan he borrowed from his mom.  

The men and one woman were part of an undercover law enforcement task force that included sheriff's deputies, LAPD officers and DEA agents, in leather jackets and T-shirts. They'd just completed a narcotics raid and were "debriefing" in the public lot, with the drugs and cash they'd confiscated still in their unmarked cars.   Listening to the testimony over the eight days of trial were some of the Porter Ranch neighbors and friends, some Northridge high school student’s classmates, and some of Carol’s friends from the school teaches at in Granada Hills.  

“Carol feels like she got her day in court,” said her attorney Cara L. Eisenberg. “So have friends of Zac who have been here since the beginning of the trial to see justice in action, especially when young men lose their lives … in the hands of law enforcement…and see there is justice.”  

The attorney points out that the agents were gathered, looking like a band of pirates or a “biker gang,” as one witness described them, and “they were debriefing in a public parking lot on a Thursday night,” Eisenberg said. “How do we feel safe unless this court holds them responsible? This case is holding them accountable when they make a mistake.”  

The attorney warned that the police shouldn’t congregate in public spaces to debrief after a raid as they did in Studio City.  

“They go there to eat on Ventura Boulevard and they can do that? Common sense dictates that that is an absurd thing to do,” Eisenberg said. “It was a bad decision to go to this lot.”  

Police officials said that they’ve met more than 100 times since Zac’s death, in similar circumstances, in similar public spaces. They could have used an empty lot behind a chain-linked fence behind the thrift store, Eisenberg suggested.  

The testimony that both sides played back disputed whether the car had stopped, or if Zac actually hit an officer, or if the officer vaulted over the car hood.   Drug Enforcement Agent Peter Lopresti, when interviewed hours after the incident, said on tape, “I had no time to think, I had only time to react.”  

Attorney John Burton, who is representing Feldman, Zac’s father, said, “This could have been anyone coming from Chipotle’s. The shooting did not improve the likelihood of a good outcome for Deputy [Mark] Brewster.”  

Lopresti also testified: “Something made me look in this direction and I saw Mark’s body go up in the air. After that it came down on the car.”  

He described the scene as a series of pictures in his mind, and Lopresti added, “I don’t remember reaching for my pistol. The vehicle accelerated towards me.”   Then, the agent said he believed “Mark is in danger, he’s going to be torn up.”   Judge Michael Fitzgerald asked questions during the closing arguments. He asked the defense attorney Jan Hahn, “I’m not seeing any way the shot assisted Deputy Brewer to get off the car.”  

Hahn said, “These split second decisions are protected.”  

The judge also pointed out that many officers carry weapons. He said, “If the 10 of them decided to go to Chipotle’s then 10 of them will be carrying weapons. This is not to say they should not have been in the parking lot. They have the right to bear their arms.”  

The judge will take the case into consideration and could issue a decision within a month.

Also see:
Mom Has Her Day in Court for Her Son, Zac Champommier

Carol Champommier Faces the Officers Who Shot her Son

And, check out this series:  
Remembering Zac—A Mother’s Living Memorial to her Slain Son, Part 1  
Remembering Zac—The Last Day She Saw Her Son Alive, Part 2 
Remembering Zac—Keeping His Memory Alive; Forgiveness? No, Not Yet, Part 3

See the video above of Carol Champommier.