Suit claims wrongful death in 1999 incident.
By: Brian Shappell
Attorneys for a Kendall Park family whose son was killed by a South Brunswick police officer in 1999 are asking a federal judge to expand a civil rights lawsuit to include two more officers and to charge the department and the officers with negligence.
The request, now under review by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark, was filed in August by Vak and Myung-Ok La, who are seeking to amend their original July 2000 lawsuit. That suit charged seven township police officers, the police chief and the department with wrongful death and claimed Sgt. Raymond Hayducka deprived their late son, Kyung-Ho La, 30, of his civil rights.
Kyung-Ho La was shot to death by Sgt. Hayducka after an altercation at the Las’ home in December 1999.
The Las are now asking the wrongful death lawsuit be expanded to include Patrol Officer John MacNamara and Capt. Michael Marosy and are seeking to charge all nine officers, the department and Chief Michael Paquette with negligence, said the La’s attorney, Adam Slater of the Livingston law firm Nagel Rice Dreifuss & Mazie.
The original suit named Sgt. Hayducka, Patrol Officers Scott Williams, Kenneth Drost, Leonard Hibbitts, Jeff Karpiscak, Richard Schwarz, Sgt. Patrick O’Brien, Chief Paquette and the department with wrongful death.
Mr. La was killed Dec. 20, 1999 after he allegedly waved a sword blade at Sgt. Hayducka and Officer Williams. Police were at the Las’ Kendall Park home escorting mental health workers. Police had requested the mental health evaluation after receiving several reports of what they termed bizarre behavior by Kyung-Ho La in his front yard as well as a previous assault on police officers, police said.
Police said Hyung-Ho La ignored several requests from both police and mental health workers to drop the weapon. After Mr. La allegedly lunged at the officers, Sgt. Hayducka shot him in the hip. He died the next morning of the single gun shot wound.
In 2000, a county grand jury determined that no charges should be filed against Sgt. Hayducka or the other officers. In addition, the state Attorney General’s Office refused a La family request to review the grand jury investigation.
In an interview this week, Mr. Slater said he is seeking to add Officer MacNamara and Capt. Marosy to the suit because they had been present in the house three days before the shooting, saw the sword blade and failed to report it.
"If these officers would have done what common sense tells you to do and told the other officers what they saw, it would have been confiscated," Mr. Slater said. "At least the officers would’ve taken precautions."
He said the negligence claim against the officers and the department had been overlooked when the initial suit was filed. He said the negligence claim is based on the failure to report the sword blade and lack of an internal police investigation.
"No investigation was ever done," Mr. Slater said. "The chief was concerned something would come out. He was part of the coverup in the department as to what really occurred."
Chief Paquette would not comment on the allegations because of the pending legal proceedings, according to Public Information Officer Jim Ryan. The chief did say he "stands by the actions the department has taken," Officer Ryan said Wednesday.
Lori Devorac, the attorney representing the township, did not return repeated calls on the matter.