LAWYER CLAIMS POLICE LIED AFTER L.A. SHOOTOUT : OFFICERS ACCUSED OF FAKING BOOBY-TRAP CONCERN TO AVOID HELPING BLEEDING SUSPECT.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

Civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman said Saturday that Los Angeles police lied by saying that they were concerned about a booby trap to justify their decision to let a robbery suspect bleed to death in North Hollywood on Feb. 28.

Yagman filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the LAPD of ``cold-bloodedly'' letting Emil Matasareanu die by refusing to provide him medical care.

He said Saturday that Matasareanu was ``begging for help'' while police let him die in an act of ``street justice.''

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie Williams issued a statement Thursday defending his officers' actions as ``heroic,'' but officials from the Los Angeles Police Department had no comment on the lawsuit.

LAPD officials have said they believed it was too dangerous to send in paramedics when they weren't sure the shootout was over. They also have said they feared Matasareanu's body might be booby trapped with an explosive.

``That was a lie. Officers touched him with their feet and hands. If it was true (that Matasareanu was booby trapped), then everyone would have been blown up,'' Yagman said at a news conference Saturday at his office in Venice.

Nick Torossian, who lives near the spot where Matasareanu died, said he could see the gunman was alive for what seemed like more than 30 minutes after having been shot. ``He was moaning and asking for help while the police watched,'' Torossian said in an interview at his home Saturday.

Torossian said, however, he wouldn't try to second-guess the police or their reasons for not calling in paramedics.

``The guy had an AK-47, so maybe he had a bomb. I don't know,'' Torossian said.

But Torossian's son Gary said residents were given no cause to believe police suspected there was a booby trap.

``If he had been booby-trapped, we would have been evacuated immediately,'' Gary Torossian said.

``The police just didn't care about him. If I was in their shoes, I would have called (paramedics) no matter what,'' Torossian said. ``The LAPD keeps on making mistakes.''

Another neighbor, Warren Harding, said Saturday that the Yagman lawsuit seems unfair.

``The lawyer and the family are taking advantage of the system,'' Harding said. ``The guy (Matasareanu) was just shooting and didn't care who got hit. He placed no value on anybody else's life.''

Harding lives a few feet from where Matasareanu died but was not home at the time of the shooting.

Mary Lou Holte, an anti-crime activist from the San Fernando Valley, was joined by some business owners from the area Saturday in voicing outrage over the filing of the lawsuit.

Matasareanu was ``not a victim; the people of North Hollywood and the people of this whole city are the victims,'' Holte said. ``The people who lived through that robbery will have emotional scars the rest of their lives.''

Witnesses said that there were a number of people at the shootout site who had to wait for treatment by paramedics because of the danger, uncertainty and generally chaotic nature of the situation.

Yagman said Saturday that he has ``gathered information from various sources'' which leads him to believe that six people were involved in the robbery.

He said he believes that one of the six has been arrested and turned over to the FBI and three are still at large.

Police said it appeared that Matasareanu and his accomplice Larry Phillips Jr., who both died in the shootout, were the only bank robbers.

But Yagman said it appeared police were looking for additional suspects when they knocked down a shed and cordoned off the North Hollywood area for hours. ``If no one else was involved, then what the heck were (police) doing?'' he asked.

He said it is unclear exactly how long Matasareanu bled without medical attention, because the Los Angeles County coroner's staff did not do testing on his liver that could have determined when he died.

``The Coroner's Office is in cahoots with police,'' he said.

Yagman filed the lawsuit on behalf of Matasareanu's two young sons.

The LAPD is continuing to investigate police procedures during the Feb. 28 shootout, including whether the gunman could have been saved if medical help arrived sooner.

Matasareanu was taken into custody about 9:50 a.m., after he was wounded numerous times. Paramedics arrived about 11:10, when they pronounced Matasareanu dead.