Rulings sought in Camden boys' car deaths

Four years after three Camden boys died in the trunk of a car, attorneys are asking a federal judge to decide whether police and government officials should be held liable.

This week, opposing attorneys filed hundreds of pages in federal court asking U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle to take their side by granting summary judgment.

The judge could agree with either side or deny the motions and leave that question to be decided at trial.

Families of the boys maintain police negligence led to the deaths; police insist they are not responsible. A cross-claim has been filed alleging the boys were not properly supervised. There are also two other lawsuits, alleging police negligence, that have been combined in state court and scheduled for trial in October.

"I believe it's a heartbreaking case," said lawyer Paul D. Brandes, who represents Elba Cruz, whose son died in the car. Brandes filed the motion this week asking the judge to agree police were negligent and caused the deaths.

Also this week, lawyer John C. Eastlack Jr., representing the police, asked to have the case dismissed, adding in an interview yesterday that the courts should not micromanage police.

"Officers have to be free to exercise discretion," Eastlack said.

Had the search for the three boys been handled differently by the family and police, both sides agree, the boys could have been saved. A medical examiner ruled the children, who suffocated, were alive in the trunk possibly a day and a half.

The boys - Anibal "Juni" Cruz Jr., 11, and Daniel Agosto, 6, both of Camden, and Jesstin "Manny" Pagan, 5, of Mount Ephraim - were playing in the Cramer Hill section of Camden when they disappeared on June 22, 2005.

Despite an intensive search by family and police, including about 120 officers, K-9 dogs, and a police helicopter, the boys remained missing for two days.

They were trapped in the trunk of an unlocked Toyota Camry at the Cruzes' Bergen Avenue home, in the yard where they were last seen playing. Authorities determined the children folded down the backseat and crawled into the trunk.

The boys disappeared between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Relatives searched futilely for three hours and called 911.

One of the first officers to respond was in the process of searching the car, had looked in and under the vehicle, but was interrupted by the father of one of the boys who reported the children were seen at a nearby pizza parlor. Police immediately investigated and learned the information was incorrect. Authorities returned to the Cruz home.

A subsequent report by the Camden County Prosecutor's Office determined that although relatives and police looked in the car at different times, no one thoroughly searched the disabled vehicle, where the children's three pairs of shoes remained among debris, or popped the trunk.

In court papers filed this week, both sides quote the prosecutor's report as supporting evidence.

Initially, the report said, the car "had been checked twice, once by family members, once by the police officers. Neither check involved entering the car or opening the trunk."

The report noted three doors were locked and the driver's door was unlocked, but its "exterior door handle was partially broken making it more difficult to open." At one point, the report said, an officer "banged hard on the outside of the trunk and loudly called out to the boys."

The boys were found two days later when a relative opened the truck looking for jumper cables.

In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, attorneys for the police note that Elba Cruz said her son had played in the vehicle and at least one other time had accessed the trunk. Police say the family never told them that and instead directed officers to other places.

The motion also contends that there is no basis for a federal claim and that police are entitled to "qualified immunity" when they perform discretionary acts, such as missing-persons searches.

Documents filed on behalf of the Cruzes allege that police failed to follow proper procedure for a missing-persons report, which should have included a thorough search of the car and trunk.

There is lengthy documentation in the court papers filed this week of the actions taken by police along with documentation of standard police procedure.

The motion for the Cruz family asserts the case is about the deaths of the three boys and "the failure of the defendant-police officers to find them before they died while trapped in the trunk of a car."