By Rick Hurd
East Bay Times
OAKLAND, Calif. — A Pleasanton man and his family who were beaten during a mob robbery aboard a BART train last month plan to seek $3 million from the agency for gross negligence.
Rusty Stapp, his wife, Patricia, and 19-year-old daughter, Amanda, were on the train and say they were beaten and robbed when 50-60 teens jumped fare gates at the Coliseum station on April 22 and rushed a Dublin-bound train.
Police say seven people were robbed of cellphones, a duffel bag, and a purse.
“It’s the closest I’ve ever been to feeling like I might die,” Stapp said.
Stapp and his family each filed a claim against BART for $1 million apiece, saying they’ve uncovered 11 areas of emphasis in which the agency failed to protect its customers, including the conductor’s choice to open the doors to the mob in the first place.
The attack occurred as Stapp and his family were returning from dinner to celebrate Amanda’s birthday. According to Stapp, the mob beat on the train as it slowed down and rushed in when the conductor opened the doors.
“The first two in the train jumped on me and started punching me,” he said. “I had my arms in front of me — I call it the Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope — and another guy gets on a seat and starts kicking me. He got me in the ribs. Fortunately, it wasn’t in the head. … It was literally like animals. They entered and didn’t say a word and had only one thing on their mind.”
He said his wife lay on top of Amanda to shield her.
“We’re still emotionally dealing with it. It’s gonna take some time. I can honestly say I’ve never been through as traumatic an event as this in my life.”
Stapp’s attorney, Paul Justi, called the attack “clearly preventable” and said the agency acted with “conscious disregard for the safety” of its passengers.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the agency had no comment on the claims and that it has been transparent with the media during the investigation.
According to the claim, two BART police officers at the Coliseum station parking lot failed to warn others of a large crowd gathered there, and that station agents also were negligent in warning passengers of the gate jumpers. The claim also blames a conductor of a San Francisco-bound train for not warning the conductor of the Dublin-bound train about a similar incident with a smaller crowd on the San Francisco-bound train moments earlier.
The claim also states that at least some of the mob came from a nearby house party that had been broken up by Oakland police, but that those officers never notified BART police.
“This attack was clearly preventable, and BART failed up and down the board to act properly,” Justi said Tuesday. “It’s inexcusable.”
Two teens have been arrested since the incident, and BART police say they are still searching for the others.
The claims are the first step toward a lawsuit. BART has 45 days to accept or reject the claim, and a lawsuit can proceed if they don’t accept it.
Randall Strauss, an attorney at Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli and Brewer in Oakland, said his firm has handled cases where public entities with duties to provide security had failed.
“The public has a right to expect a minimum standard be followed to ensure security whenever riding on a public conveyance,” said Strauss, who added that he expected BART to reject Stapp and Justi’s initial claims. “I can’t think of a case where an entity just says, ‘you’re right, I’ll write you a check.’”
In up to 90 percent of civil cases, Strauss said settlement before trial is common.
Strauss, a San Francisco Giants fan who occasionally rides BART to attend games at AT&T Park, recalled the case of Bryan Stow as an example of a case where multiple expectations of security failed to prevent an injury assault.
Stow, a Capitola resident and Giants fan attending an away game March 31, 2011 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, was violently assaulted by two men in the parking lot “after placing trust in the team and ballpark to provide security at the game and in the parking lot,” Strauss said. He said that Stow’s attackers were seen agitating inside the stadium, leading Stow’s lawyers to argue that the attacks might have been prevented if security had been visible or active in the parking lot.
The Dodgers and Stow’s assailants — Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood — were ordered to pay $18 million.
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©2017 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)