Los Angeles County attorneys want a lawsuit filed by a 63-year-old man who says was struck in the head by a 40mm projectile fired during a sheriff’s training exercise reduced to at most a single negligence claim.
Birch Wellington Pender’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit currently alleges battery, negligence, negligent hiring, training and supervision and civil rights violations. Pender was driving his pickup truck on Sierra Highway in the Antelope Valley when he was struck at about 4:15 p.m. May 4, 2022.
On Thursday, county attorneys filed court papers with Judge Steven Ellis arguing that there was no intent on the part of the deputy who fired the weapon to harm Pender and that the deputy acted reasonably.
The drills took place in the exterior of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale station, where the deputy and other trainees took turns discharging the launcher attempting to strike a dummy target, the county lawyers explained in their pleadings.
One of the deputy’s practice rounds missed the target, which the county attorneys say is not uncommon, and hit a window on Pender’s pickup truck as he drove along Sierra Highway, also striking and injuring the plaintiff, the county attorneys further state. The deputy had been assigned to the Palmdale station for four days and was still undergoing orientation and training, according to the lawyers’ pleadings.
The Palmdale sheriff’s station is located on East Avenue Q just east of Sierra Highway. The 40mm projectile shattered a window on Pender’s truck, hit him in the head and left him with severe, permanent injuries and emotional distress, according to the suit filed in February 2023.
“At the time, plaintiff did not know what caused his window to explode or what struck him in the head, causing him to fracture his septum,” Pender’s attorneys’ court papers state.
Pender has been unable to perform his job to the extent that he could before being hurt and faces an ongoing reduction in income, the suit states.
A hearing on the county’s dismissal motion is scheduled for Oct. 17.