An attorney hired by the family of a Los Dodgers fan who was attacked at the stadium on March 30 after a game between the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks, indicated he felt the team could have done more to prevent the incident and expects to file a lawsuit against the team.
Rafael Reyna, 47, remains in intensive care at County/USC Medical Center. His wife Christel, said Reyna was hospitalized after he was punched and suffered a fractured skull. She was on the phone with him at the time and heard a man and woman arguing with him.
She told NBC4 she was on Facetime with Reyna when she heard a woman yell “Why did you do that?” as a man approached her husband and cursed at him. Then she heard a crack and the screen went black.
She said her husband has swelling and bleeding on the brain.
Attorney Carl Franklin told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday, April 2, that Reyna is improving “but he remains in very serious condition.” He compared the attack on Reyna to one in 2011, when Giants fan Bryan Stow from Santa Cruz was attacked after a game and left severely brain-damaged. The two men who attacked Stow pleaded guilty in 2014 and one, Lonnie Sanchez, was sentenced to eight years in prison while the other, Marvin Norwood, received a four-year sentence. The incident prompted increased security measures at the stadium.
“This tragedy urges the question of, ‘what has the Los Angeles Dodgers done since 2011… when another visitor to the stadium, Mr. Bryan Stow, was injured and severely hurt that afternoon?’” Franklin said
Franklin added the family expects to sue, but nothing has been filed yet.
“The question has to be, ‘LA Dodgers is it [coming to the stadium] really any favor for your millions of fans who pass through those turnstiles every single home game?’ We hopeful for answers than more questions,” Franklin said.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for Reyna, a father of four, at www.gofundme.com/dodger-stadium-attack-victim-on-life-suppo….
In a separate television interview, Christel made a tearful plea for anyone who saw what happened to contact police.
“Somebody needs to come forward,” she said. “I know people saw it. I heard them.”
Anyone with information on the March 30 attack is asked to call the LAPD.
City News Service contributed to this report.