A judge has consolidated two lawsuits against Los Angeles County in relation to the deaths of two El Monte police officers who were fatally shot by a convicted felon in the city.
Originally, the families of Officers Joseph Santana and Michael Paredes filed separate complaints against the county, District Attorney George Gascon and his office, the county Probation Department, and the Siesta Inn motel for wrongful death. Officer Santana’s lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 3, while Officer Paredes’ complaint was filed in Pomona Superior Court on June 9.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Hwang made the decision to consolidate the cases on Wednesday after the parties agreed that combining the complaints would be beneficial in terms of “judicial economy.”
On July 26, Judge Hwang denied the county’s request for an immediate consolidation of the cases, stating that the motion should have been brought as a regular calendar item. She will now oversee the combined cases until the trial, with the next hearing scheduled for September 11.
Officers Santana, 31, and Paredes, 42, responded to a report of a stabbing on June 14, 2022, at the Garvey Avenue motel, where Justin Flores was staying with his wife. The officers saved the victim, but they were subsequently shot and killed by Flores.
According to the lawsuits, Flores, 35, entered into a plea deal in 2021 after being arrested in 2020 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and methamphetamine. Despite having a prior felony conviction for burglary, Gascon issued a directive preventing the prosecutor from filing a strike allegation against Flores, disregarding California’s “three strikes” law, which requires prior strikes to be pleaded by prosecutors, as alleged in the lawsuits.
Instead of being sentenced to prison, Flores was placed on probation in March 2021 and only had one check-in with his probation officer, despite being required to have monthly check-ins, according to the lawsuits. The suits further claim that the Probation Department failed to initiate a necessary revocation proceeding that would have resulted in the termination of Flores’ probation.
On June 2, 2022, Flores’ probation officer conducted a phone check-in after learning that he was illegally in possession of a gun and had assaulted a woman. However, Flores did not show up for a scheduled appointment four days later, and the probation officer never reported this information to law enforcement, according to the lawsuits.
Although the probation officer filed for a revocation of Flores’ probation one day before the shootings, Flores was not taken into custody. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on a sidewalk outside the motel after shooting the officers.
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