Posted on: July 19, 2024, 06:34h.
Last updated on: July 19, 2024, 06:34h.
Security at California’s Bicycle Casino were negligent when they restrained a man in the venue’s parking lot, but their actions did not lead to his death, according to a Los Angeles jury.
Korean American Jonathan Jung died three minutes after being held face down on concrete while one of the casino’s private security agents placed a knee on his back.
Jung’s family sued “the Bike” in 2022, claiming that poorly trained security staff used excessive force on Jung in an effort to restrain him, leading to death by suffocation. The family asked for $132 million in damages.
But the jury determined that the security agents’ actions were not a substantial factor in Jung’s death, the Courtroom View Network (CVN) reports. Instead, jurors chose to accept the county coroner’s autopsy report, which cited the cause of death as methamphetamine toxicity.
Mental Health Crisis
On July 4, 2021, Jung was playing baccarat at The Bike when he suffered what his family described as an acute mental health crisis. Jung began hearing voices and talking to himself, which prompted casino staff to ask him to leave.
Lawyers for the casino argued he was behaving erratically and needed to be subdued because he posed a danger to others.
Jung’s family claimed in the lawsuit that he made no attempt to threaten anyone and that he left peacefully of his own accord. He even left $3,800 on the gaming table.
He was followed out of the casino by five security staff members, whom he allegedly told that he just wanted to get in his car and leave.
The defense maintained that Jung “ran around the lot trying to evade security staff.” But his family claimed the security staff bundled the unarmed man into a car and drove him to a corner of the parking lot. Then they knocked him down, handcuffed him, and applied the dangerous maneuver which the plaintiff’s said caused him to vomit, turn blue, and suffocate in three minutes.
Jung’s sister, Vanessa Jung, committed suicide shortly after watching footage of her brother’s death.
Coroner Controversy
Lawyers for the plaintiffs claimed the coroner’s report was controversial because of “analytical difficulties” with the way Jung’s blood sample was collected, stored, and tested.
Minh Nguyen, who represented the Jung family, told CVN he would appeal. He claimed his trial strategy suffered because Judge Patrick Madden had unexpectedly chosen to reverse an earlier ruling barring any discussion at trial of Jung’s drug use.
We lost credibility, and the evidence clearly swayed the jury because the jury found that the guards’ conduct was negligent, but their negligence did not cause Jonathan any harm, which cannot be the case legally,” he Nguyen said.
His co-counsel, Terrence Jones, added that “hate crimes” against Asians do not generate the same level of outrage against those perpetrated against other ethnic groups. Had his client been Black, for example, the case would have “garnered broader coverage and scrutiny,” he claimed.
