Beating victim's case against Dodgers underway

BY LINDA DEUTSCH
AP SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers had insufficient security when San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot after the 2011 opening day game between the California rivals, an attorney told jurors Thursday in opening statements of the trial of a lawsuit seeking damages from the team and former owner Frank McCourt.
The defense countered that there was more security than at any other Dodgers opening day and that responsibility for the injuries lay with the two men who pleaded guilty to the attack and with Stow himself for being intoxicated and exchanging taunts with the assailants.
Stow's attorney, Tom Girardi, outlined his case in a packed courtroom, but his brain-damaged client was not present.
Stow, 45, had observed jury selection from a wheelchair, but Girardi said outside court that it had been too much for the former paramedic from Northern California. He requires constant care, which his lawyers say could cost $50 million over his lifetime.
Girardi said that the Dodgers cut costs by using more non-uniformed off-duty police officers than uniformed officers, who cost more. "The deterrent effect of having an officer in blue means a lot to everybody," he said.
Girardi described a rowdy atmosphere at the game, with a crowd of 56,000 and tempers running high because of the teams' fierce rivalry.
"There was a lot of hostility," he said. "It's different than going to a night at the symphony at the Hollywood Bowl."
During the game, one of Stow's eventual assailants was throwing food and soda at people sitting near him in the stands, Girardi said. "All of the time there was this yelling and screaming and throwing stuff at these nice people there was no security," he said.
Attorney Dana Fox, representing the Dodgers and McCourt, said a capacity crowd was expected and the Dodgers took it seriously.
"The evidence is going to show in this case Mr. Stow was gravely injured because of a testosterone- and alcohol-fueled flash-fire fight in the parking lot," Fox said. "Some of this was caused by Mr. Stow, who consumed a lot of alcohol. He drank liquor and beer before the game and beer during the game."
When Stow arrived at the hospital, his blood-alcohol level was 0.149 percent, and forensics experts will show that at the time of the fight his level was between 0.16 percent and 0.20 percent, Fox said. The legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.
Girardi earlier told jurors that the Stow's blood-alcohol level as it related to the standard for drunken driving was irrelevant because Stow and his friends had taken a taxi to the stadium and afterward were heading to the street to take another taxi.
Fox, however, contended that "it is not legal to be drunk in public when you can't care for yourself and others."
The defense attorney said the Dodgers had assembled "the largest security force ever for an opening day in their entire history," including 437 officers and security guards, Fox said. The sworn officers included police and California Highway Patrol, and the FBI was also present because an opening day game is considered a potential target for a terrorist threat, he said.
The Los Angeles Police Department and FBI had command posts at the stadium, and the FBI also had cameras, Fox said.
The Dodgers' security cost for that day was $66,604 out of a season-long budget of $2.185 million, he said.
The team's attorney told the jury the only issue was whether the Dodgers acted reasonably or were negligent.
While Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood acted criminally and despicably in attacking Stow, the Dodgers were not responsible for their actions, Fox said.
"If they (plaintiffs) do not prove the Dodgers were a substantial factor in causing the injuries, they lose. The standard in this case is whether my clients acted reasonably," he said.
Witnesses at a preliminary hearing testified that security guards were not present in the parking lot where Stow was beaten and kicked by Sanchez and Norwood. The pair wore Dodgers gear, and Stow wore a Giants shirt.
Sanchez pleaded guilty to one count of mayhem and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Norwood pleaded guilty to one count of assault likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to four years. Both still face unrelated federal firearms charges.

Obama & Hillary Clinton's Lunch Was A Secret Until People Magazine Spilled The Beans

Posted: 05/29/2014 5:25 pm EDT Updated: 05/29/2014 5:59 pm EDT

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President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had lunch at the White House on Thursday, but their meal may have remained a secret if it hadn't been for People Magazine tweeting about it.
Earlier Thursday, the magazine tweeted out a photo of the former secretary of state with People's Washington bureau chief Sandra Westfall. The tweet indicated that Clinton was about to meet with the president:
The lunch was not on the president's public schedule, and had not been acknowledged in any way by the White House. The tweet was deleted shortly after.
The White House later confirmed the meeting to Roll Call's Steven T. Dennis, the print pool reporter for the day.
"The President enjoyed an informal, private lunch with Secretary Clinton at the White House this afternoon," the official said, according to Dennis' pool report. The official did not offer details on what was discussed at the lunch.
Dennis noted that he has filed a complaint with White House press secretary Jay Carney over the lack of transparency regarding the meeting.
People has since reposted their tweet.

2 boys declared co-champions of Spelling Bee

By Ben Nuckols
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) - For the first time in 52 years, two spellers were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.
Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, shared the title after a riveting final-round duel in which they nearly exhausted the 25 designated championship words. After they spelled a dozen words correctly in a row, they both were named champions.


Earlier, 14-year-old Sriram opened the door to an upset by 13-year-old Ansun after he misspelled "corpsbruder," a close comrade. But Ansun was unable to take the title because he got "antegropelos," which means waterproof leggings, wrong.
Sriram entered the final round as the favorite after finishing in third place last year. Ansun just missed the semifinals last year.
They become the fourth co-champions in the bee's 89-year history and the first since 1962.
"The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other," Sriram said after both were showered with confetti onstage. "I'm happy to share this trophy with him."
Sriram backed up his status as the favorite by rarely looking flustered on stage, nodding confidently as he outlasted 10 other spellers to set up the one-on-one duel with Ansun. The younger boy was more nervous and demonstrative, no more so than on the word that gave him a share of the title: "feuilleton," the features section of a European newspaper or magazine.
"Ah, whatever!" Ansun said before beginning to spell the word as the stage lights turned red, signaling that he had 30 seconds left.
Although they hoisted a single trophy together onstage, each will get one to take home, and each gets the champion's haul of more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.
Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, finished third, and Ashwin Veeramani of North Royalton, Ohio, was fourth.
Both champions are Indian-American. The past eight winners and 13 of the past 17 have been of Indian descent, a run that began in 1999 after Nupur Lala's victory, which was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound."
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Associated Press Writer Joseph White contributed to this report.