Suits Against Deputies in Death Case Pared to 1 Claim

A ruling by a federal judge Monday left intact only a small part of two $10-million lawsuits accusing three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies of killing a woman who was found slain after an evening of drinking with the deputies at a Van Nuys bar.

The suits, filed by the woman’s father, Edward Postma, and her mother, Mary Postma, accuse the deputies of causing the wrongful death of Catherine Michelle Braley, 26, and of violating her civil rights.

But in the father’s suit Monday and the mother’s suit last week, U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer dismissed the civil rights claims by ruling that the deputies were not acting in their authority as law enforcement officers when, while off duty, they met Braley the night of Jan. 14, 1988. The next morning, Braley’s body was found beaten and strangled in a nearby parking lot.

Los Angeles police investigating the unsolved case have said that no deputy is a suspect and that the three deputies, Robert Mallon, Robert Waters and Mike Turner, have denied involvement in Braley’s death.

Dismissed Claim

Pfaelzer last week dismissed Mary Postma’s wrongful death claim on the basis that it should be dealt with by a state court, not a federal court.

But on Monday, the judge would not dismiss Edward Postma’s wrongful death suit on procedural grounds because Postma lives in Iowa and is suing residents of another state, causing federal court to have jurisdiction. The judge’s rulings made no statement about whether the suits’ allegations have factual merit.

On the night before she was found dead, Braley had been drinking in a bar called The Hunter and had left at the same time as the deputies. In court depositions, Waters and Turner said they went their separate ways after leaving the bar.

Mallon said in a deposition that he and Braley left in his unmarked county car and drove to a nearby area where they had consensual sex in the car.

Braley, he said, then left the car and walked away. She was found dead the next day about a block away.