Cristobal and Elisa Guardado, the parents of 18-year-old Andres Guarado who was fatally shot on June 18th by a deputy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), are calling upon Sheriff Alex Villanueva to be transparent in their son’s death and provide their family with some answers by releasing a LASD “security hold” placed on Andres’ autopsy report.
Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP attorneys Adam Shea, Spencer Lucas, Ryan Casey and Nicholas Yoka represent the Guardado family in the matter of Andres’ death and stood alongside his parents as they expressed their grief and demanded transparency from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department following the fatal shooting.
“Today is the 13th day that this incident occurred and we have no details, we have no reports,” said Andres’ father, Cristobal Guardado. “We are asking Villanueva to release all of the documents necessary in this case. The coroner’s report, the police reports, we need more information…it is very painful for me to be here today with no information.”
On behalf of the family, attorneys have continued to demand answers from the LASD and recently issued a letter to Sheriff Alex Villanueva demanding the release of Andres’ autopsy report as well as a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors requesting their assistance to intervene, as needed.
“As of stepping forward right now, we’ve had no response from the Board of Supervisors or the County Counsel,” said Adam Shea at the press conference. “As a result of the Sheriff and the County Counsel refusal to give us information, we’ve retained the services of an independent forensic pathologist to perform a private autopsy on Andres and we hope to have those results soon. Because the Sheriff’s department wants to keep everything in secret, does not want to be transparent, it appears we are going to have to be the one’s to bring you the facts. We hope to have the results from the private autopsy soon and when we do, we will release that information.”
Attorneys also announced that they have filed government tort claims against the County of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on behalf of each parent, a procedural necessity prior to filing a civil lawsuit against the entities.
“Both entities will have 45 days to respond to our claims and either accept or reject them,” Ryan Casey said. “If they reject those claims, we will get a right to sue letter and we will begin with a lawsuit. If they do nothing with those claims at the end of 45 days, the claims expire and we will proceed with filing a lawsuit at that point. We’re doing everything we can behind the scenes to get justice for the Guardado family.”