The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department removed three deputies from their duties while investigating the bleeding of a Valencia man outside the Santa Clarita Bar last year.
Parker Seitz, 25, alleged in a federal lawsuit that the off-duty sheriff’s representatives attacked him outside a bar called the “lounge.”
He suffered serious injuries, according to a complaint filed on August 25 in California Central Federal Court, including a fracture, a stabbing lung and a bruised clavicle.
Seitz is suing the county, with multiple Los Angeles County sheriff’s representatives hiring security guards in the lounge and hiring the bar itself to compensate for unspecified losses.
“Parker Seitz was attacked by off-duty LA Sheriff under the surveillance of security personnel signed by local businesses,” Seitz’s attorney Josh Stambaugh said in a statement. “He suffered serious injuries, and as we said in the lawsuit, members and leaders of LASD then tried to cover up the facts of the attack and evaded responsibility on behalf of the organization.”
The Sheriff’s Department said in an email that it “takes the allegations seriously” and “has conducted an internal investigation into the incident on December 2. Three employees were relieved of their duties before the findings.”
The management of the lounge did not respond to a request for comment.
The complaint said off-duty representatives Randy Austin and Nicholas Hernandez, along with an unidentified third assailant, as well as civil conspiracies in the county and department employees of many sheriffs accused of attempting to bury the incident.
Parker Seitz, 25, accused sheriff’s deputies of assaulting him outside the Santa Clarita bar on the last Thanksgiving day. The Los Angeles County Sheriff removed three deputies as he investigated the incident.
(Robert Hanashiro / The Times)
According to the complaint, Seitz and two friends visited the bar at 10:30 p.m. on November 27, Austin, Hernandez and the third attacker “started disturbing and harassing Seitz, including repeatedly reaching for sunglasses on the head.” The complaint said that after leaving the bar at 1:36 a.m. on November 28, Hernandez “in a rude and offensive way” and “the quarrel broke out” and Hernandez knocked Seitz on the head.
The complaint said the dispute quickly disappeared, but then at about 1:46 a.m., Austin punched Seitz “suddenly and without any reason” and knocked him down, followed by Austin, Hernandez and the third person in British identity, “beat and stomp on him while he was on the ground.”
Seitz bleed during the assault and was taken to a nearby hospital. Shortly after Justin Diez arrived there, he was the captain in charge of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station at the time of the incident Promoted in April The complaint says the Northern Patrol, who led the department, served as commander-deputy deputy Richard Wyatt, allegedly slandered him and violated his constitution and civil rights to intimidate him and cover up the attack.
Seitz said Wyatt told a friend of Seitz that he threw the first punch and that he was vandalized while in the hospital, Seitz denied it.
Later that morning, Diez called Seitz’s father, Ryan Seitz, and told him that his son had “began a fight with the off-duty deputies of LASD” and “if Ryan Seitz leaves it to” Diez filed any claim against the deputies or the county.
The Sheriff’s Department did not respond directly to the allegations outlined in the Seitz complaint, but it said “policies and procedures have been established that clearly outline the standards of conduct required by all employees. … If evidence is found to support allegations of misconduct, any violation of these standards will be addressed quickly.”
Stanbo said Seitz “had gone out with friends after celebrating the purchase of his first home” and he was allegedly beaten.
“Parker Seitz’s lawsuit is a requirement for the wrongs he personally suffered and works to ensure that the actions of these specific LASD members remain abnormal,” Stabo said in a statement. “This is not the LASD that the Seitz family supports and believes in.”
