Posted on 05/20/2008 10:42:14 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
The widow of slain Houston police officer Rodney Johnson filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the landscaper who employed Johnson's killer, as jurors continued deliberating Juan Leonardo Quintero's fate.
Quintero was convicted earlier this month of shooting Johnson seven times after he was arrested during a traffic stop.
Johnson's widow, Joslyn, said Robert Lane Camp was negligent in hiring Quintero, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
"He needs to pay for his actions," Johnson said.
Her attorney, Ben Dominguez, said the negligence theory is based on testimony that Camp shouldn't have let Quintero drive a company truck illegally. Quintero did not have a driver's license.
Testimony also showed that Quintero drank about 24 beers every day and sometimes used cocaine, which Dominguez cited in his petition alleging Camp should have known Quintero was dangerous.
Jurors weighing whether Quintero should receive the death penalty for the shooting were sequestered late Monday and will resume deliberations Tuesday morning.
A note from the jury late Monday seemed to indicate that the jurors had decided Quintero would be a future threat to society — one of two questions any jury must decide before doling out the death penalty. According to the note, which was read in open court, jurors said they are moving on to the second question: whether there are any mitigating factors showing that Quintero should be spared.
Defense attorneys on Monday pleaded for the life of Quintero, while Harris County prosecutors said he should pay "the ultimate price" for shooting Rodney Johnson.
"It wasn't planned; it wasn't deliberate," said Danalynn Recer, Quintero's attorney. "He fell off the edge."
Recer told jurors there are many reasons to show mercy and spare Quintero's life, including his wife and two stepchildren.
Recer has conceded that Quintero shot Johnson as the officer filled out a booking sheet in the front seat of his patrol car on Sept. 21, 2006.
She said the shooting was a "freak circumstance" in which Quintero exploded, but that he would not pose a future threat to society if given life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors worked to show that Quintero should be executed for the shooting.
"If you're a threat in the back seat of a patrol car, you're a threat anywhere," said Denise Bradley, an assistant district attorney.
"If you follow the law," she told jurors, "there may not be mercy, but there will be justice."
To show a past criminal history, prosecutors pointed out that Quintero had several DWI convictions and was deported after pleading guilty to indecency with a 12-year-old girl in 1999.
The jury has not heard any details of that crime.
"You know he should pay the ultimate price," prosecutor John Jordan said. "You know he deserves it."
The arguments capped the trial in state District Judge Joan Campbell's court.
The jury convicted Quintero of capital murder on May 8. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Jurors began deliberating on Quintero's sentence at noon Monday. They will be sequestered until they reach their verdict.
Johnson was killed after stopping Quintero for speeding and arresting the 34-year-old for not having a driver's license. Investigators said Johnson patted down Quintero, but missed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol tucked in Quintero's waistband.
In a videotaped statement, Quintero said he shot Johnson while he was locked in the back seat of the patrol car, his hands cuffed behind his back.
Joslyn Johnson's attorney, Ben Dominguez, said she is seeking "not less than $10 million in damages," from Camp and his landscaping company for hiring Quintero, housing him and allowing him to drive a company truck even though he didn't have a license.
Camp is under federal indictment and faces up to 10 years in prison, accused of harboring Quintero. Neither Camp nor his criminal defense lawyer could be reached late Monday.
Joslyn Johnson also said she is contemplating suing the City of Houston to force HPD to staff each patrol car with two officers.
"If there were two officers at that scene, my husband would still be alive," Johnson said. A police officer herself, Johnson wrote a letter to Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt after her husband's death asking him to change the policy, she said.
I wish all victim’s families would do this.
“s month of shooting Johnson seven times after he was arrested during a traffic stop.”
After arrest you are handcuffed. What really happened?
The victims (or their survivors) holding the employers accountable for the criminal illegals they hire.
A GREAT idea. I hope she ends up owning a lndscaping company.
“It wasn’t planned; it wasn’t deliberate...” his attorney says.
It may not have been planned, but it WAS deliberate.
It is not possible to accidently shoot someone 7 times.
May she take this company to the cleaners. But, don’t hope for it, because a lib-O-judge will find some reason to throw a Clinton-wrench into the proceedings.
“What really happened?”
He was handcuffed, but the LEO missed the gun in a patdown. Here’s the full story.
http://tinyurl.com/3nr7sx
This suit will have significant problems on this issue of causation.
I wish all victim’s families would do this.”
I hope this lawsuit goes forward and that she wins on all counts.
We all need some precedences for what is coming down the road at all of us with the illegal intruders.
This is more than just hiring an illegal. After Quintero was deported Camp paid to have him brought back to Houston to work for him. Two really bad news types. Too bad Camp isn't up for the death penalty.
It’s a pity all the government officials guilty of deliberate negligence in not enforcing our immigrations laws can’t be sued. I wonder if there has ever been another circumstance where so many sworn to uphold the law deliberately and actively refused to have it enforced.
For Quintero's employer not to have made sure he had a legal driver's license before allowing him to drive a company vehicle is negligence.
He either knew or should have known he wasn't a legal employee.
There ought to be a number of criminal and civil penalties that can be appropriately used against his employer.
However, I don't see how you get from hiring an illegal alien to having good reason to believe that he would shoot a cop.
The employer does need to be held accountable for what laws he did break, and reasonable consequences of breaking those laws.
Unless they can provide evidence that the employer had good reason to believe that Quintero would kill someone, it's not reasonable to hold them responsible for the officer's tragic death.
The employer should be held accountable for his own actions, but not the criminal actions of someone else, unless he should have clearly foresaw them. Otherwise, we end up with people using the civil courts to punish people beyond what the government has legislated.
The idea of suing the police department for not having two officers in each car is even worse.
Quintero is the one that is responsible for the officer's death, and he should fry for his crime.
His employer is guilty of illegally employing him, and might even be reasonably held accountable for allowing his to driver the vehicle if he struck someone in an auto accident.
However, I don't see a direct role in the capital murder of the police officer.
I can understand the officer's widow wanting to go after anyone remotely involved in her grief. However, this suit should be dismissed.
Good!
Count me as one conservative who does not support making employers equally as guilty as the illegals they hire. Especially when there are cases of the employer being charged, yet the illegal is still not deported. That’s like a quarter on a string.
Ping!
More power to the Johnson family in suing his business owner
Of course, the Business Socialists/Chamber of Communists types will whine and complain that the business owner shouldnt be liable...blah blah blah...but the owner knew that he hired an illegal and that the business owner did not check for a drivers license
My job requires a DL...and we are checked all the time. This business owner will get nailed on this...esp if Quintero ever drove a company vehcile...or used his POV for business reasons
Of course, Part II, the pro-illegal/anti-American lobby will piss and moan over this....but Americans are tired of criminal illegals. We have lost a LEO due to another criminal illegal..and its time it stopped
I predict that this business owner will settle out of court. He probably cannot afford the lawyers fees to defend himself to get to the point where a judge would dismiss this case. His insurance (if he has it) will push for a settlement
Fry the illegal and jail the employer
Yes.
May 20, 2008, 2:04PM
Jurors sentence HPD officer’s killer to life
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5792183.html
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