Death after Twin Pines fistfight raises thorny issues for investigators, prosecutors
08:29 AM PST on Thursday, December 27, 2007
By JOSE ARBALLO JR.
The Press-Enterprise
By all accounts, the fistfight between Gordon Nye Frank and Ty Reddish along a quiet rural road in the San Jacinto Mountains lasted only few minutes.
When it was over, the 68-year- old Frank, a Twin Pines resident known internationally for his design of off-road vehicles and drag race cars, was bruised and bleeding, his lip split open. Frank would be dead within minutes of arriving at his nearby home.
Reddish, 27, a former Norco High School athlete who had lost his home in the Esperanza Fire months before, was taken into custody.
The Riverside County district attorney's office determined that the brawl, which started because Reddish thought Frank was driving too fast and kicking up dust, was nothing more than a fight between two people. Officials decided in October not to prosecute Reddish. Frank died of heart disease, but the fight was a contributing factor in the death, an autopsy found.
"It's an issue of mutual combat," said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. "Both of them were defending themselves."
It was a decision that has left Frank's widow, Leota Ann Frank, frustrated and angry -- at the man she claims is responsible for her husband's death, at the Riverside County sheriff's detectives she says botched the investigation and at the district attorney's office opted not to prosecute Reddish.
"He got away with murder," Leota Ann Frank, 72, said in an interview from the couple's Twin Pines home. "My husband did not lay a hand on him. He was the one who started everything. He's the one who wouldn't walk away. He's the one who choked my husband. ... He got away with it."
Reddish, contacted by telephone at his parents' home in Twin Pines, declined to comment. In interviews with detectives that are part of a 77-page police report, Reddish said Frank was the aggressor and he defended himself. Reddish told investigators that Frank choked him and threw the first punch.
Some legal experts say this type of case presents varied issues for prosecutors as they decide whether to file criminal charges. Conflicting statements from witnesses can be a problem, particularly if those who saw the fight have a bias for one side or the other. Proving intent to cause serious harm or death is also a huge obstacle, some experts say.
"You have to ask yourself as a prosecutor, 'What am I going to be able to prove to a jury?' " said Gary Gibson, an adjunct professor at the California Western School of Law in San Diego. "Even if someone starts the fight, did they intend the person to die from a heart attack?"
Lee Ann and Nye
Leota Frank, known as Lee Ann to friends, left earlier this month for Cabo San Lucas, the Mexican resort city the couple considered their second home, having vacationed there for decades. She planned to visit the cemetery in Cabo San Lucas where her husband's remains are buried.
Gordon Frank, known to friends as Nye, spent years traveling from race to race, but he wanted to settle eventually in Cabo San Lucas, where he and his wife enjoyed fishing, walking along the sandy beaches and spending time with the friends they had made over the decades they had spent there.
Lee Ann Frank would not move there until Nye Frank, a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, had built her a new home where she could spend the hottest summer months out of the Mexican sun. The two-story home on Valley High Drive in Twin Pines-- a residence Nye Frank had designed -- was finished Aug. 5, the same day the couple decided to drive a few hundred yards to pick up a newspaper.
The Clash
Around 10 a.m., Nye Frank drove the couple's white Camry to the intersection of Valley High and Twin Pines Road, where a collection of mailboxes and a single newspaper rack stand. A well-worn bulletin board announces community events and upcoming meetings.
She said that before her husband could get out of the car, someone she did not immediately recognize approached and appeared to be agitated.
"He started screaming, 'You're driving too fast, and I live here. You're making too much dust,' " she said. "The kid would not shut up. He just kept on saying the same thing over and over again."
Reddish had been cleaning up the lot on which his home's burned-out remains stand.
The two men began to argue, and Lee Ann Frank said she placed herself between them, trying to persuade them to go their separate ways. At one point, Lee Ann Frank said, she was pulled toward her husband and Reddish pounced on Nye Frank. She said Reddish placed her husband in a headlock and pummeled the older man, who was pinned to the ground.
She said the assault continued even as her husband lost consciousness. She said she tapped Reddish in the back twice with her foot and again harder when that did not seem to get his attention.
"I was begging him to get off my husband," she said. "He wouldn't get off. He didn't even seem to know that I was there. He was crazy."
The men eventually separated, and Lee Ann Frank drove her husband home. Nye Frank went into the bathroom to clean up, his wife said, and she headed to the bedroom to change clothes. They planned to go to the hospital to get Nye Frank's cut lip treated. When she heard her daughter scream moments later, Lee Ann Frank ran into the bathroom and found her husband of 37 years on the floor.
His heart had stopped, and he was not breathing. Nye Frank never regained consciousness.
"I never got to say goodbye," Lee Ann Frank said.
A Different View
Reddish told investigators he was cleaning out debris left over from the fire when he saw a car approaching the intersection at a high rate of speed. He told police he approached Frank and screamed, "You know, when my kids are here and you are driving that fast down the road, we are going to have problems, and we're gonna be fighting."
Reddish told investigators that before there was any physical contact, Frank took off his glasses, put his fists up in a boxing stance and called Reddish a "young punk." Reddish described how he tried to explain the potential hazards of driving too fast on the dirt road and went to hand Frank back his glasses. At that point, Reddish told investigators, Frank grabbed for his throat.
Reddish told investigators that Frank said: "I'm doing everything I can to provoke you."
Reddish said he did not confront Nye Frank seeking a fight, but that happened because Frank attacked him first.
When investigators told Reddish that Frank had died, he cried and asked for his father. Reddish spent three days in custody.
The Investigation Starts
Within hours of the fight, sheriff's deputies, investigators and prosecution officials converged on Twin Pines, a small mountain community off Highway 243. Members of Frank's family as well as Reddish's relatives were interviewed.
Reddish and Lee Ann Frank each told investigators what they knew. Their versions of what had happened were vastly different and no one else had seen what had happened.
"As a prosecutor, you start to think about the criminal case and have to consider who is going to be more believable," said Justin Brooks, executive director of the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy and a professor at Western Law School in San Diego. "You have the grieving widow and the statement of the suspect. You don't have an independent witness. Each witness in this case has their own bias."
Lee Ann Frank said she believes sheriff's investigators did not go far enough in their probe, and she wonders why Reddish was never drug tested, something that is routinely done in homicide investigations.
According to the police report, Reddish admitted to investigators that he had used marijuana three days before the altercation, but he denied taking any illegal or nonprescribed narcotics. Investigators noted that Reddish show no outward signs of being under the influence of a controlled substance and "there were no indicators to lead us to believe that a blood sample would be necessary."
Findings Forwarded to DA
Investigator Jerry Franchville, spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, said detectives believe the investigation was thorough and they forwarded the results to the district attorney's office.
Michael Rushton, chief deputy district attorney, declined to speak specifically about the case. In general, he said, officials have to consider many factors, including issues of self-defense and determining who had been the aggressor.
Rushton said he understands the family's frustration, but he added that officials have to weigh the factors with an unbiased eye and base decisions on evidence rather than emotion.
Court records show Reddish was on probation for a March 2005 conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol and possessing less than an ounce of marijuana.
The autopsy showed Frank had evidence of heart disease, along with physical signs that he had been in a fight. There was no internal damage to his neck. There were some broken ribs. The report did not say whether the ribs were broken during the fight or during CPR.
"There needs to be a causation between the injury and the action," said Brooks, with the Defense Advocacy group. "How much of it (the death) was his own doing? He could have had a heart attack changing a tire or some other physical activity. The fact that it happened after a fight does not mean it was connected.
"In the end, it's a real tough case to prove," he said
Reach Jose Arballo Jr. at 951-368-9280 or
jarballo@pe.com
Originally Posted by Lt. Dan 1608
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