DISTRICT FREE FROM LAWSUIT SLAIN TEEN'S MOM DENIED.PALMDALE - A judge ruled Wednesday that the Palmdale School District The Palmdale School District is a school district that serves a major part of the city of Palmdale, California (USA). The Palmdale School District was first formed in 1888. Approximately 28,000 students are enrolled in the Palmdale School District. cannot be sued over the death of a 13-year-old Juniper Intermediate School student killed in a fistfight with a classmate. The attorney representing the mother of the dead boy, Stephan Corson, said she will appeal Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael Farrell's decision. ``It's our contention that the school district as well as (the other student in the fight) and his father are responsible for the damages resulting from Stephan's death, and that the school district should not be dismissed from the action,'' attorney Melanie Lomax Melanie E. Lomax (April 12, 1950 – September 10, 2006), was a civil rights lawyer and former head of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. Lomax was the daughter of Lucius Lomax, an attorney, and Almena Davis Lomax, a civil rights activist and publisher of the said. ``Mrs. Corson believes that if there had been supervision of that class, her son would be alive today.'' Lomax said she would file a writ with the appellate court A court having jurisdiction to review decisions of a trial-level or other lower court. An unsuccessful party in a lawsuit must file an appeal with an appellate court in order to have the decision reviewed. in Los Angeles next week, seeking to keep the school district as a defendant in the wrongful death The taking of the life of an individual resulting from the willful or negligent act of another person or persons. If a person is killed because of the wrongful conduct of a person or persons, the decedent's heirs and other beneficiaries may file a wrongful death action lawsuit. The case was before Farrell on Wednesday for a hearing on the district's request to have the lawsuit against it thrown out. Farrell granted the request and did not allow Lomax to file a revised complaint. Farrell had thrown out Mary Corson's lawsuit against the district two times before but allowed her attorneys to file amended complaints. ``The court granted the demurrer demurrer In law, a plea in response to an allegation that admits its truth but also asserts that it is not sufficient as a cause of action. In the U.S., demurrers are no longer used in federal procedure (having been replaced by motions to dismiss or motions for more definite in its entirety, which results in the dismissal of the case against the school district,'' an attorney for the district said. The other student in the fight also has been named as a defendant. Farrell ruled in February that Mary Corson cannot sue the district for racial discrimination. Stephan Corson was African-American, the other boy is white. Stephan Corson's death Nov. 28, 1999, was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, which said the boy died from damage to his spinal cord spinal cord, the part of the nervous system occupying the hollow interior (vertebral canal) of the series of vertebrae that form the spinal column, technically known as the vertebral column. caused either by a punch thrown by the classmate or from hitting the ground with his chin. Los Angeles County prosecutors declined in April 2000 to file charges against the classmate, saying he acted in self-defense in what was termed an ``excusable homicide EXCUSABLE HOMICIDE, crim. law. The killing of a human being, when the party killing is not altogether free from blame, but the necessity which renders it excusable, may be said to be partly induce by his own act. 1 East, P. C. 220. .'' In their report, prosecutors said 11 witnesses said Stephan started the fight, and that a teacher told investigators that after she separated the boys, Stephan reached around her and punched the other boy, who then struck back. Stephan fell, hitting his head on a concrete surface, the report said. Other witnesses and the boy's family have disputed that account, saying Stephan was being held back by another student when he was punched the last time. The case was transferred to the Van Nuys court after Lomax argued that Antelope Valley jurors might be tainted by pretrial publicity The right of a criminal defendant to receive a fair trial is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The right of the press (print and electronic media) to publish information about the defendant and the alleged criminal acts is guaranteed by the First Amendment. . CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Juniper Intermediate School student Stephan Corson, 13, died after a fistfight with a classmate in November 1999. |
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