The last memory Richard Paper has from the day of the crash was going for a walk that morning.
The next thing he remembers that day last summer was waking up in a hospital bed. Weeks had passed. Only later did he learn that he and his brother Stephen had been badly injured when an LAPD squad broadsided their car as they made a left turn through a San Fernando Valley intersection.
The brothers, both in their mid-70s, sued the city of Los Angeles and the officer who was driving, leading to an $18-million settlement last month — thought to be the most city taxpayers have ever paid to resolve a police collision case.
Although lawsuits over police shootings and protest tactics tend to receive the most scrutiny, officer-involved traffic incidents remain an intractable and costly problem. Even before the Paper brothers’ record settlement, the city had spent at least $90 million in negotiated payouts or verdicts in more than 1,200 lawsuits related to bad police driving over the last decade, according to a Times analysis of public records data. Dozens of other cases that could lead to large payouts remain pending.
At any given moment, scores of police squads are out across the city, rushing to emergency calls for help or cruising around in search of criminal behavior. Despite training on how to speed safely through traffic, more than 500 collisions every year involve LAPD and other law enforcement vehicles citywide, according to state records. Just under half of the time, officers were found to be at least partly at fault.
Most are minor fender-benders, but several incidents have been fatal. In December 2023, a female officer was put under internal investigation after slamming into and killing a 25-year-old man with her police cruiser. Multiple sources familiar with the incident but not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation said the officer was racing to retrieve uniforms for an LAPD-affiliated youth football event.
Another driver was killed in a collision with police on May 26 in North Hollywood, followed by the most recent fatal crash, on Sept. 19 near a community carnival in Highland Park. In that incident, an LAPD vehicle speeding to search for an assault suspect fatally struck a young filmmaker, who, according to an online fundraiser for his family, was on his way home from work.
In response to questions from The Times about collision-related lawsuits, an LAPD spokesperson released a list of bullet points that described the department’s efforts to reduce traffic crashes in general citywide, including DUI checkpoints, extra patrols and partnering with the Transportation Department’s Vision Zero initiative to encourage safe driving.
In recent years, the department has also adopted new restrictions to limit high-speed pursuits, including by increasingly relying on its helicopters to track fleeing drivers.
New LAPD recruits also receive 40 hours of fast-driving training at the Police Academy.
But in the crash that injured the Paper brothers, the officer behind the wheel was a department veteran with plenty of training: He was a member of the LAPD’s street racing task force.
On June 4, 2024, the Paper brothers were headed to dinner in the San Fernando Valley.
Stephen, who was 75 at the time, was chauffeuring his Toyota Camry for his older brother Richard, then 76, taking him around town on a visit from Minnesota.
As day faded to dusk, they were heading down Balboa Boulevard and had edged into the intersection with Burbank Boulevard as they prepared to turn left.
LAPD officer Jason Stevenson was barreling down Balboa from the other direction. Stevenson’s attorneys argued in court and through legal filings that he had been chasing another vehicle on a stretch of road known to attract speeders.
Dashcam footage showed Stevenson — an 11-year department veteran who previously worked as a traffic cop on the Westside — making a U-turn on Balboa moments before the collision, and racing down the street. But he failed to turn on his squad car’s emergency lights and sirens.
In depositions, LAPD investigators estimated that he was traveling 80 mph five seconds before the impact — nearly twice the posted speed limit.
As Stevenson approached the intersection, an analysis of his car’s on-board computer showed he tried to slam on the brakes, suggesting he saw the brothers making their left turn at the last minute.
The impact of Stevenson’s 3,900-pound Ford Taurus sent the brothers’ red Camry pinballing into another car, a light pole, the side of a building and finally an electrical box.
Stevenson walked away with relatively minor injuries.
Richard Paper wasn’t so lucky: Brain bleed. Broken right fibula. Fractured ankle. A right arm being held together now with a metal rod and screws. His brother fared just as bad.
At trial, jurors heard from the ER doctor who treated the brothers on the day of the crash, who testified that their “altered mental status” and inability to answer even basic questions led him to conclude that they had both sustained traumatic brain injuries.
Brothers Richard, left, and Stephen Paper were on their way to dinner in the San Fernando Valley on June 4, 2024 when an LAPD cruiser slammed into their 2010 Toyota Camry.
(Courtesy of Paper brothers)
After playing tennis professionally when he was younger on challenger tours in India and Europe, Stephen had moved on to coaching, taking a job at the El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana. Some of his students and their parents would visit him in the hospital. But with a newly fused back and a still-mending arm from the crash, his coaching career was over in an instant, he says.
“I haven’t held a racket since then,” he said in an interview with The Times.
State law permits officers to exceed the speed limit or run red lights as long as they go “Code 3” — police lingo for turning on emergency lights and sirens — and show regard for the safety of other motorists.
Over the years, the LAPD has loosened its guidelines for when and why officers are allowed to go Code 3 while responding to a serious emergency — rules that in the past were routinely flouted.
The brothers’ attorney, Robert Glassman, argued during the trial last month that under the LAPD’s policy, officers are generally still not allowed to go racing through the streets without lights and sirens when pursuing a minor traffic infraction. And if they do, Glassman said in court, they are supposed to alert dispatchers of their intentions.
Stevenson did none of that, he argued.
The driver and a passenger of the other car that was struck were also injured; both have filed a lawsuit against the city for their injuries.
Glassman pointed out that the LAPD’s own accident reconstruction unit had faulted Stevenson, finding that speed was the main cause of the crash.
“There’s no indication he was going to slow down … none whatsoever,” Glassman told jurors.
During his opening remarks at trial, the deputy city attorney assigned to the case questioned those findings, saying that the investigators had been pressured to wrap up their inquiry in a matter of weeks and thus hadn’t been aware of other evidence.
At least part of the blame, he insisted, lay with Stephen pulling into the path of an officer doing his job in a city with some of the country’s most dangerous roadways. Had Stephen been more aware, he might have seen the officer coming before trying to turn, he said.
He also accused the brothers of milking their injuries for a bigger payday.
“LeBron James money,” he said they wanted.
Past crashes have spurred the LAPD to reconsider the way the department investigates serious accidents involving suspected negligence or other significant misconduct by officers.
Officers involved in preventable traffic collisions are given points under a system similar to the one the state Department of Motor Vehicles uses for driving violations and accidents — which shows up in their internal personnel file. If officers accrue a certain number of points within a short span they can be required to undergo retraining or have their driving privileges revoked.
According to data maintained by the California Highway Patrol, L.A. County collisions in which a law enforcement vehicle was found to be at fault have risen steadily. In Los Angeles, as of Oct. 8, officers were at least partly responsible for 183 — or 44% — of the 415 police-related collisions so far this year — down 9% from the same period the previous year.
Under the Paper brothers’ settlement, the city was supposed to issue a formal apology to them.
But at their next court date, the city attorney’s office suddenly reversed course. Glassman said he found the last-minute decision not to apologize “pathetic,” but agreed to drop the matter for the sake of completing the settlement.
Superior Court Judge Valerie Salkin seemed dumbfounded.
“Just as a human, you know, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for an apology to occur,” Salkin said. “If it were my fault, I would do it.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.