Two brothers who were seriously injured when their car was struck by a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car in June have filed a negligence lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department, alleging that the officer driving the car was speeding unnecessarily at 80 mph just before the collision.
Steven and Richard Paper, 74 and 76, were driving a Toyota Camry south on Balboa Boulevard in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley when the brothers were struck from the side by a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car as they attempted to turn left onto Burbank Boulevard to head west.
“The irony and absurdity of this accident is that this officer was on assignment at the time patrolling the area for street racing. He was a member of the street racing task force,” said attorney Robert S. Glassman, who is representing the Paper brothers in their lawsuit.
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The Los Angeles Police Department’s traffic accident investigation report blamed Officer Jason C. Stevenson for the accident, which occurred on June 4, 2024, just before 8 p.m.
“The proximate cause of this accident was Party 1 (Jason Stevenson) operating at an unsafe speed in violation of California Vehicle Code Section 22350,” Los Angeles Police Department crash investigators wrote.
Glassman said data extracted from the patrol car’s accident recorder showed the car was traveling at 80 mph just before the collision and its speed at the moment of impact was recorded as 55 mph.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s crash report stated that if the officer had been driving at the 45 mph speed limit, the brothers would have had enough time to turn through the intersection and “this collision would not have occurred.”
In a statement issued the day after the crash, before its investigation was completed, the Los Angeles Police Department said officers had been attempting to catch another speeding vehicle when the crash occurred.
“The Street Racing Unit assigned to the Valley Traffic Division heard the sound of a vehicle making loud exhaust noises and later observed the vehicle traveling south on Balboa Boulevard at a high rate of speed,” the statement said.
The department declined to comment Friday on the specific allegations in the lawsuit, citing a policy of not discussing pending civil litigation.
Glassman said the brothers had led active lives before they were seriously injured in the accident, adding that they remain in hospital receiving treatment.
He said he believes the crash is emblematic of the dangers posed by police officers exceeding the speed limit.
“He didn’t have his lights on or his siren on. I can’t imagine this would be an appropriate situation,” Glassman said.
The I-Team reported last year that about a quarter of LAPD car chases in recent years have ended in crashes, and many of the injuries were “bystanders” — civilians unrelated to the police action.
