A new issue has been raised during the trial of the death of Jonathan Jung, who died last year after being forcibly subdued by five security guards in the parking lot of Bicycle Casino in the Bell Gardens area, highlighting the inadequacies of the initial police investigation.
The trial is currently underway in a Long Beach court. The plaintiff’s attorney, Indira Cameron-Banks, pointed out that the investigative report failed to mention a security guard pressing down on Jung’s back with his knees at the time of the incident. “This indicates that Mr. Jung’s cause of death was not thoroughly investigated,” Cameron-Banks stated.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office initially determined that Jung’s death was caused by methamphetamine. However, the flaws of the initial investigation are prompting calls for a new investigation into the cause of death.
Cameron-Banks emphasized the necessity for the district attorney’s office to charge and punish those responsible, independent of the civil trial. “This requires a thorough criminal investigation, not a dismissal of one individual’s life as worthless,” she said.
In May, plaintiffs’ attorneys formally requested that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office reinvestigate the case. The authorities are closely following the trial proceedings.
Esther Lim, chair of the AAPI Advisory Board of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, stated, “The county attorney’s office is aware of the seriousness of the case and is closely watching all the trial proceedings. The advisory board has briefed the prosecutor’s office on the importance of the case, and they will decide on the course of investigation after monitoring the results.”
Currently, the plaintiffs are asking the jury to award $132 million in damages, alleging that the wrongful conduct of Bicycle Casino caused Jung’s death.
Antonio Hernandez, one of the security guards involved in the incident, testified in court on June 18. “I didn’t want to be a part of it,” Hernandez told the jury, describing the events. He explained that a “rush of adrenaline” led the security guards to act without waiting for the police. “One of the security guards pulled his legs back and pressed down on him while the other pulled his arms behind his back and handcuffed him,” Hernandez testified, adding, “His face turned blue, he started vomiting, and when they turned him over, he had no pulse.”
Jung’s father, Jung Sik Jung, saw security camera footage of his son choking to death while being chased by the casino’s security guards for the first time in court on June 17. Father Jung, who is attending the trial daily, expressed his shock in a phone call with the Korea Daily on June 26, saying, “I don’t know what to say. I’m too shocked.”
The incident occurred on July 24, 2021, at around 3:57 p.m. in the parking lot of the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens. The five casino security guards allegedly drove an unarmed Jonathan Jung, who was leaving the casino without resistance after being ordered to leave, to a corner of the parking lot. They then knocked him down, handcuffed him, and applied pressure with their knees, resulting in his death.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
