< The Latest 2025-04-15T23:15:11+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Tue 04/15 03:49pm PST | City News Service
A judge has removed Los Angeles County as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a sheriff’s deputy who alleged the amount of overtime their son was required to work played a role in his ambush killing in 2023.
Michael and Kim Clinkunbroomer, the plaintiffs in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, maintain that Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was too fatigued to stay alert and avoid threats, leading to his fatal shooting outside the Palmdale sheriff’s station. The suit alleges a cause of action for battery against accused gunman Kevin Cataneo Salazar and an allegation of state-created danger against the county, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and two other LA Sheriff’s Department members.
On Monday, Judge Lynne Hobbs dismissed the state-created danger claim, taking the county out of the case. The judge found that the facts did not show “deliberate indifference” on the part of the LASD, but instead a staffing shortage caused by a hiring freeze that in turn necessitated increasing the amount of overtime deputies worked.
Clinkunbroomer’s parents maintain in the suit originally filed in April 2024 and revised on July 2 that their son was told to work so much overtime that he was exhausted and could not effectively respond when the then-30-year-old Salazar allegedly drove up alongside the deputy’s patrol car and shot him in the back of the head on Sept. 16, 2023.
During a hearing in October, Hobbs ruled against dismissing the claim, but agreed it needed more facts to support it and allowed the Clinkunbroomers’ attorneys to file an amended complaint. In Monday’s ruling, she ruled that the additional information provided in the revised complaint was not sufficient.
Salazar is charged with murder that includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle, along with allegations that he personally used and discharged a .22-caliber revolver.
Salazar has entered a dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity in connection with the killing. If Salazar is convicted and determined to have been insane at the time of the killing, he would be confined to a state hospital rather than prison.