When San Diego Police investigated a 2023 crash where a suspected drunk driver plowed into a parked van, the case started as most would.
The driver was arrested and the van was towed away, put under lock and key at a local impound yard.
But according to a $50-million claim filed against the city, police should have investigated further.
Inside the parked van was Monica Cameroni de Adams, a 65-year-old mother who was homeless and sleeping in the middle row when it was hit.
It wasn’t until about a month later when an employee at the tow yard noticed a “pungent smell” emanating from the wrecked 2001 Honday Odyssey that Cameroni De Adams’ body was found, according to the claim.
“In our assessment, she died some time after impact and probably perished in the tow yard,” said John Carpenter, an attorney with the firm Carpenter and Zuckerman who is now representing Cameroni De Adams’ family. “The officers and the tow truck operators failed to take any kind of inventory, or to see if there was a live person inside.”
The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit filed by Cameroni De Adams’ children, alleges police officers were negligent and reckless when they failed to look inside the van, and notice that Cameroni De Adams had “sustained severe but survivable blunt force injuries from the collision that required medical attention.”
The crash occurred on Nov. 5, 2023, just after 1 a.m. in the 5000 block of Clairemont Drive in San Diego, according to the claim.
A spokesperson for the San Diego Police Department and the city said they could not comment on potential litigation.
A collision report, included in the claim, states that the crash sent the van forward where it collided with another parked vehicle in front of it. The impact pushed the van’s rear door into the middle row where Cameroni De Adams was reportedly sleeping.
Carpenter said it’s unclear how, or why, officers and the tow truck operators failed to find Cameroni De Adams inside the van. Body camera footage of the incident has been requested, but denied so far by the city, he said.
“There’s zero excuse for them to not have done a cursory examination to see if anyone was inside,” Carpenter said.
A report of the incident, included with the claim, noted that the driver, Jordan Lopez, who rear-ended the van appeared to be slurring his words and had trouble standing while police spoke with him.
Lopez has since pleaded guilty to DUI causing great bodily injury.
The two parked vehicles involved in the crash were towed “to avoid further vandalism,” the report notes, and officers attempted to contact their owners but were unsuccessful. The report does not state how officers attempted to reach the owners, including Cameroni De Adams, the owner of the van.
The report does not state whether officers looked inside the vehicles before having them towed.
On Nov. 14, 2023, Natalia Danielle Cameroni-Adams filed a missing persons report for her mother after she had sent messages the previous day trying to wish her a happy birthday, but did not hear back.
Cameroni De Adams was found three weeks later on Dec. 6 “wedged under miscellaneous items in the vehicle’s middle row,” according to the claim.
The autopsy report notes she had suffered several injuries, including rib fractures, a fracture in her spine, and a broken arm. The most likely cause of her injuries, according to the report, was blunt force trauma.
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