Crime & Safety

Driver to Stand Trial in Good Samaritan Electrocutions

A 20-year-old Glendale man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on two vehicular manslaughter charges stemming from a crash last summer in Valley Village that led to the electrocution of two good Samaritans who rushed to the scene and stepped in water electrified by a toppled light pole.

At the end of a preliminary hearing, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Karen J. Nudell found there was enough evidence for Arman Samsonian to stand trial on the felony counts and ordered him to return to court for arraignment Aug. 7.

Samsonian remains free on bail.

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He surrendered to authorities in October after the charges were filed. According to police and prosecutors, he was recklessly driving an SUV Aug. 22 when he sheared a fire hydrant and toppled a light pole near the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Ben Avenue, creating a pool of electrified water.

Stacey Lee Schreiber, 39, of Valley Village, and Irma Zamora, 40, of Burbank, were electrocuted when they stepped in the water while running to the scene of the crash.

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Zamora was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by her husband behind the SUV that crashed, and Schreiber rushed out of her home to help Samsonian. Six other people suffered electrical burns, and five were hospitalized for a time. One of the injured was a patrol officer from the LAPD's North Hollywood station who suffered a shock through one of his boots, police said.

Samsonian's friend, Ashot Avanisian, said during the preliminary hearing he and Samsonian were each shocked while trying to assist the two women.

"My friend Arman ran out of the car to help her," he said of one of the women.

"When I touched her, I just kept getting shocked," Avanisian said.

Avanisian -- who was driving a car or two behind the white SUV that he said belonged to Samsonian's father -- described himself as driving "less than the speed limit" and Samsonian as driving "a little bit faster than me." He said he did not believe his friend was driving unsafely.

Avanisian said he saw his friend briefly driving in a turn lane in the middle of the road before returning to the normal traffic lane.

A police detective who interviewed Samsonian while he was hospitalized said the young man told her he had gotten impatient because traffic was piling up, so he began driving in the center lane. He told police he had returned to the main lane and was going about 15 to 20 mph when he tried to turn.

Witnesses described Samsonian's vehicle as going faster than the traffic around it -- with one witness estimating that it was traveling at about 70 mph in what he believed was a 35 mph zone.

"It seemed very dangerous to assist," another witness, Alexander Hilhorst, testified about the aftermath of the crash. He noted that he heard some screeching sounds before the SUV went over the curb and struck a fire hydrant and a lamppost.

One woman said she was running to help at the scene when she heard her mother tell her to stop.

Samsonian's attorney, Andrew Flier, told the judge, "Clearly, based on this evidence, this is a tragic accident ... It's so unforeseeable that people are going to die from being electrocuted."

He argued that his client could not have reasonably foreseen the possibility of an electrified pool of water being created in a crash, while acknowledging that his client "might have been speeding."

Deputy District Attorney Ron Carey countered that Samsonian had been "speeding down a crowded road" and that it was reasonably foreseeable that someone might be injured if he was to crash on a street lined with power lines and light poles.

The judge sided with the prosecution.

"He was definitely driving negligently. He had a disregard for others ... He was driving in the left-turn lane so he could pass those cars ... He made a terrible turn," the judge said, noting that it was unclear if the two women who rushed to the scene could see that the power wires had fallen into water shooting from the fire hydrant.

--City News Service


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