A former CHP motorcycle officer who killed a Long Beach pedestrian while riding to work should not have been on motorcycle duty because of an eye ailment, the officer’s supervisor said in a sworn deposition.
California Highway Patrol Lt. Joe Dominguez testified under oath that if Officer Alfredo Gutierrez had reported his impaired eyesight, he would have been removed from motorcycle duty pending medical clearance. The testimony was included in court papers filed this week in a wrongful death lawsuit against the CHP by the family of Cezannie Mount, the 24-year-old pedestrian killed in October 2019.
The documents filed by attorneys Eric Dubin and Annee Della Donna said there is no evidence Gutierrez was examined or cleared by CHP-contracted doctors.
“Dominguez testified the most important issue was ensuring that the officer could safely operate the motorcycle without harming themselves or the public, and made clear Gutierrez would not have been allowed on a CHP motorcycle at the time he hit and killed Cezannie without the mandated CHP doctor’s clearance he could safely perform his duties,” the attorneys said in the documents.
“Either (the CHP) knew and they didn’t care or Gutierrez never told them,” said Della Donna, explaining that Gutierrez has said his supervisors knew everything. “Somebody’s lying.”
Medical records show that Gutierrez was diagnosed five days before the accident with central serous chorioretinopathy, a condition that distorts vision because of a build-up of fluids beneath the retina.
Gutierrez’s medical condition was not known by prosecutors or jurors during his criminal trial in May for Mount’s death.
Gutierrez was charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter because he was traveling at nearly 70 mph in a 40-mph zone. A mistrial was declared after jurors were unable to reach a verdict. The Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office announced it would not seek a retrial, partially to spare Mount’s family from another protracted proceeding.
Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert has said his office would have introduced Gutierrez’s eye condition as evidence of recklessness if prosecutors had been told about it.
Medical records show that Gutierrez went to the emergency room at UCI Medical Center less than a week before the accident, complaining that a “halo pattern” was affecting the vision in his left eye.
A medical expert contacted by Southern California News Group likened chorioretinopathy to the vision someone would have if grease was smeared on their eyeglasses — they can still see but it’s blurry. The condition generally clears up on its own in two to three months.
Mount was killed while walking at 4:40 a.m. beside the median on Del Amo Boulevard near Cherry Avenue on Oct 27, 2019, on the officer’s left side — the same side as Gutierrez’s ailing eye.
Mount played basketball at Long Beach Poly High School and was an aspiring hip-hop artist, his family has said. After earning a degree in music from Earlham College in Indiana, he had returned home and was working at Raising Cane’s restaurant in Lakewood to pay for studio time to make music.
Gutierrez, who worked out of the South Los Angeles CHP office serving the South Bay and Long Beach, sustained serious injuries in the crash and took a medical retirement.
