Cop's
widow wins lawsuit over vest
By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF
WRITER
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CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Jamie Zeppetella
and her lawyer, Greg Emerson, met with the media yesterday in the parking lot
of the |
The Superior Court jury found the two companies failed to warn rookie
Officer Tony Zeppetella about potential defects with the vest, and it ordered
them to pay just over $2.5 million in damages to Zeppetella's widow and toddler
son.
Zeppetella was killed
Yesterday's verdict was returned against Second Chance Body Armor Inc.,
which made and sold the vest, and Toyobo Co. Ltd., a Japanese company that made
the Zylon synthetic fibers inserted into the soft body armor to make it
bullet-resistant.
A lawyer and a spokesman for the defendants said they will ask Judge Michael
Anello to reject the verdict, and that if he doesn't, they will probably
appeal. The judge could also lower the award or the two sides could still reach
a settlement.
The jurors deadlocked on another question: whether a defective design
allowed one of the bullets to penetrate the soft body armor and caused a fatal
chest wound.
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Tony Zeppetella |
During the three-week trial, much of the evidence focused on
the hole in the upper-right chest area of Zeppetella's vest.
Attorney Greg Emerson, who represented Zeppetella's widow, Jamie, and son, Jakob,
argued the hole itself was clear evidence the vest
failed.
Emerson presented studies and written documents from both companies that
showed Zylon degraded much faster than expected when exposed to heat, humidity
and light, conditions most patrol officers encounter while working.
The companies did not warn the public until four months after Zeppetella's
death, when they stopped producing Zylon vests, Emerson said.
In 2004, Michigan-based Second Chance filed for bankruptcy and Armor
Holdings Inc. acquired most of the non-Zylon related assets. A new company
called Second Chance Armor Inc. was created and was not part of the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the companies argued that the vest worked as designed because
it stopped a bullet at the officer's back. They argued the bullet that caused
the fatal chest wound was shot at such a steep angle that no vest on the market
could have stopped it.
The jury foreman said in an interview that there was too much conflicting
evidence on the question of the design defect and that some jurors agreed with
the defense argument about the bullet's angle being too steep for the vest to
stop it.
“The evidence was weak on both sides,” said the foreman, an accountant from
However, he said the jury could not ignore the internal documents showing
the companies discussed the Zylon degradation at least two years before
Zeppetella's death and did not make the information public.
If Zeppetella had been aware of the issue, he might have chosen a different
vest, the foreman said.
“It led us to believe there was a probability that Zeppetella could have
made a decision that could have saved him,” he said. “There was something going
on that wasn't ethical.”
The Oceanside Police Department had issued Zeppetella a different vest, but
he paid $300 of his own money to upgrade to the $950 Zylon vest.
The jury awarded the officer's widow and son a total of $3.6 million in
damages, of which the two companies will have to pay $2.5 million.
Jurors found that Camacho bore the responsibility for the balance of the
damages, but that is a legal technicality because he was not a defendant in
this case.
Camacho had drugs and a stolen gun with him. Authorities described him as an
illegal immigrant, gang member and small-time drug dealer.
The damages were computed through an estimate of what the 27-year old
officer would have earned in his lifetime.
Attorney Robert Green, who represented Second Chance, questioned the jury's
reasoning.
“If the vest is not defective, what do you warn about?” Green asked in an
interview after the verdict. “Any other vest would have performed the same
way.”
A Toyobo spokesman agreed and said the company will fight to clear its name.
Emerson said the jurors got it right and that he is contemplating whether to
seek a retrial on the design-defect question.
“This jury said the vest failed and it killed Tony,” Emerson said in an
interview. “That's worth multiples more than the money this jury awarded.”
Jamie Zeppetella spent numerous days at the courthouse watching the criminal
case against her husband's killer and then pursuing the lawsuit against the
companies.
“I wanted everybody who was responsible to be held accountable, and this
does that,” she said. “For the last three years, this has been my life.”
Staff writer Dana Littlefield contributed to this report.