Officer's widow awarded $3.6 million in faulty vest suit

By Jose Luis Jimenez

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

11:56 a.m. September 7, 2006

VISTA – A Superior Court jury Thursday found two of the companies involved in manufacturing the protective vest worn by an Oceanside police officer when he was murdered liable for failing to warn him of defects.

The panel awarded the officer's widow and son $3.6 million in damages, of which the two companies will have to pay about $2.5 million unless the verdict is reduced, overturned on appeal or a settlement of the wrongful death suit is reached.

The jury found that the felon who fatally shot Officer Tony Zeppetella during the 2003 traffic stop in Oceanside was responsible for the other share of the damages. That is a legal technicality because he was not a defendant in this case.

The killer is Adrian Camacho, a prison parolee who prosecutors said killed the officer because he had drugs in his car and wanted to avoid being returned to prison.

Camacho was convicted of murder and other charges, sentenced to be executed and is currently on death row in San Quentin State Prison.

The lawsuit was filed by Zeppetella's widow and son and the verdict was reached after nearly a week of deliberations.

The decision ends the wrongful death civil suit filed by Jamie Zeppetella after her husband, a rookie Oceanside police officer, was shot and killed while wearing the bullet-resistant vest.

Zeppetella contended that the vest her husband wore on June 13, 2003, was defective and allowed one of 13 bullets fired at him to penetrate his chest.

Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., which assembled and marketed the vest and Toyobo Co. Ltd., a Japanese company that supplied the Zylon synthetic fibers that were designed to stop the bullets, were named in the lawsuit filed in November 2003.

The year after Zeppetella's death, Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., a Michigan-based company, filed for bankruptcy. The company was bought by Armor Holdings Inc., which acquired substantially all of the non-Zylon related assets of the bankrupt company and created a new company called Second Chance Armor, Inc., which has no connection to the Zeppetella lawsuit.

During the trial, Zeppetella's attorney, Gregory Emerson, told the court that the companies were aware that the vest's ability to stop bullets deteriorated when exposed to heat, humidity and light – an environment officers are exposed to while doing patrols – and the companies didn't let their customers know.

The companies in turn defended their products and blamed Zeppetella's death on Camacho for killing the 27-year-old officer.

Zeppetella pulled Camacho over on in the parking lot of the Navy Federal Credit Union in Oceanside that June afternoon.

Camacho who had with him drugs and stolen guns, according to court testimony during his trial, was described by authorities as an illegal immigrant, gang member and small-time drug dealer.

He shot Zeppetella 13 times in an attempt to escape and was later convicted of the officer's death on Feb. 7.

Second Chance Body Armor, Inc. was also the focus of a Justice Department investigation launched in September 2005 to determine if the company sold defective bulletproof vests for President George W. Bush, federal agents and local police and waited nearly two years to let customers know the body armor could be faulty.

A former research chief for the company was cooperating with federal investigators. Documents also showed many of the vest sales were made after Second Chance Body Armor, Inc. was alerted by Japanese material maker, Toyobo Co., of problems with Zylon maintaining its protective properties under certain conditions.

The Secret Service declined to say whether Bush ever wore the vest.

The faulty body armor gained notoriety after Zeppetella's death.

Zeppetella graduated from Paso Robles High School in 1994 and later joined the Navy.

After he left the service, he worked a short stint at a computer company and then joined the police academy in May 2002, about the same time he and his wife married.