There was no time for what law enforcement alleges happened to have happened, Lacy said. Sheriffs officials collected 14 samples of DNA evidence from the scene but only tested one, he said. Unlike the plaintiffs attorneys in this case, the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office and the County of Santa Barbara takes seriously our professional obligation to avoid undue pretrial publicity about this matter since it is currently in litigation, he said. . Country Club Wedding. However, another knife was found on the property, Lacy explained. Photo: Kirsten Ely/Instagram; James Lemke Jr./WireImage, Woman Found Stabbed to Death at Santa Barbara Home Owned by, Fatal Shooting of Tarzan Actor Ron Ely's Son Cameron Determined to Be a 'Justifiable Homicide', 'Tarzan' Actor Ron Ely Sues Police, Claiming Son Who Stabbed Wife Was Surrendering When Cops Killed Him, Man Allegedly Killed Wanted Suspect in His Mother's Murder Before He Could Be Found by Police, 4 Dead, Including 2 Children, After Fla. More recently, he had a role in the 2014 television movie Expecting Amish. Defendant deputies are heard instructing decedent Cameron to keep his hands up, according to the lawsuit. events.} Near impossible to stab someone many times and not have that evidence. What the evidence is indicating is that they have not been truthful in their dissertation of the shooting events that night, he said. Sign Up for the A.M. Report Since then, she has worked as a writer-reporter on the Human Interest team and an associate editor on the TV team. Mr. Roder argued that if Cameron was moving like the D.A.s report indicates, it would be impossible for the bullet trajectory to have occurred. Just because youre an adult, it doesnt mean that mom and dad should be kicked to the curb. Supervisors ponder how to keep the bloat afloat! They point to an audio recording of the incident that directly contradicts the deputies statements and the District Attorneys report, which relied solely on an internal Sheriffs Office investigation. Guardian Ad Litem KIRSTEN ELY, as successor-in-interest to Decedents LUNDEEN ELY, 42 U.S.C. I'm pro law enforcement but it appears the Ely's may have a case due to the manner (reported up to this time) in which this call was handled. The D,A,s office should have tested all of the DNA collected at the scene. Deputies also claimed that Cameron announced that he had a gun and that he lunged forward. Op-Ed: Santa Barbara Unified Schools Do Not Have to Be This Way, CHP to Enforce Super Bloom Traffic Issues, Helicopter Rescues Couple from Hiking Trail, Op-Ed: County Republicans Hire Accused Child Sex Trafficker for Keynote. Stop with the mis-truths & exaggeration - its not an epidemic. Certainly, its a devastating wound, but one that someone can live from if they receive the appropriate medical aid.. She came and visited the site of the wedding the day before (quite a haul from Santa Barbara to Malibu for 20 minute visit!) The Ely's are a lovely family and Valerie truly was a real life fairy godmother, as Kaitland described. You might also like our free A.M. Report. We just needed someone to try., The fact that one of the involved deputies Deputy Jeremy Rogers was part of two other fatal shootings and a wrong-way car accident that, in total, claimed four lives and cost Santa Barbara taxpayers $4.8 million in lawsuits also gives Lacy serious cause for concern. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. a new report by the District Attorneys Office, attempting to surrender to the four deputies with his hands raised, Wife and Son Killed in Tarzan Actor's Hope Ranch Home, Officers Identified in Shooting of Unarmed Hope Ranch Murder Suspect, One Santa Barbara Deputy, Five Violent Deaths, 'Tarzan' Actor Ron Ely Sues Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office Over Family Deaths, District Attorney Finds Officer-Involved Shooting of Tarzan Actor's Son Justified, A Series of Lies: Ely Family Denounces DA for Clearing Deputies in Fatal Shooting, Chemical Spill Response to State Street Marshall's. A video-recorder contradicted the deputys story about the suspect aiming his car at him. The company is a California Limited-Liability Company - Ca, which was filed on May 12, 2011. To make the tragedy even more devastating, the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office announced that the gruesome act had been committed by Valerie and Rons son, Cameron Ely. One year to the day after their brother Cameron Ely the son ofTarzanactor Ron Ely was shot 22 times by Santa Barbara Sheriffs deputies, Kirsten Ely and Kaitland Ely Sweet and their attorneys held a tearful news conference in the driveway of the familys Hope Ranch home to forcefully rebukea new report by the District Attorneys Officethat ruled the shooting a justifiable homicide. The spokesperson said no deputies were injured during the confrontation and noted that the office is currently conducting criminal, coroners, and administrative investigations. Copyright 2023 Santa Barbara Independent, Inc. Reproduction of material from any Independent.com pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. Confused circumstances. Forty minutes passed before paramedics were allowed inside the home and declared her dead. A settlement of $650,000 (your money). You're on the list. One year to the day after their brother Cameron Ely the son of Tarzan actor Ron Ely was shot 22 times by Santa Barbara Sheriff's deputies, Kirsten Ely and Kaitland Ely Sweet and their attorneys held a tearful news conference in the driveway of the family's Hope Ranch home to rebuke a new report by the District Attorney's Office that ruled the shooting a justifiable homicide. Cameron Ely, who was unarmed, was fatally shot by the responding deputies on the driveway of the residenceat 4141 Mariposa Drive, where he lived with his parents. Deputy Rogers, during the course of his law enforcement duties, also allegedly caused a fatal car crash. It is important to remember that the plaintiffs attorneys allegations are just that allegations, not facts. Listening to the audio only takes 19 seconds, and then you will know the truth, too.. Valerie, who was in obvious need of medical help, Lacy said. Thank you for making the world a better place Thank you for being you:) I love you forever and a day!, In another post, Kaitland said of Valerie, She shines daily:) I am so lucky to have her I love her more than air!. Eight slugs through the windshield. Our view is we ought not accept their official position without some corroboration, and there is no corroboration whatsoever, he said. Meaning derived from the above: Only if this case goes to trial can we hope for any kind of public accountability. During Thursdayspress conference, Scott Roder with the Evidence Room unveiled its digital reconstruction of theallegedevents last fall. You cant summarily execute someone because you think they committed a crime, he said. Click "Accept" to agree and continue. Site design and development byHop StudiosHop Studios, They contend Cameron Ely presented no threat when he was gunned down by deputies, and that he and Valerie Ely were denied timely medical attention. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook. 1 review of Elysium of Santa Barbara "There are genuinely no words to describe how utterly fantastic Elysium is. 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It came from a knife lodged in Valeries chest she was found in the homes dining room and revealed a combination of Valerie and Camerons DNA. Two other individuals have been found with links to this address: Erick L Bishop and Jennifer Lee Ely. The county is not going to fess up, said family attorney DeWitt Lacy, a prominent civil rights lawyer who specializes in police misconduct cases. Cameron Ely, 30, was shot dead by officers on Tuesday after . Mr. Lacy said that because the Coroners Bureau did not appropriately probe the trajectory of the bullet wounds that the illustration cannot be 100% certain.. Moreover, Lacy said, the few brief moments in the tape between when the deputies first approach Cameron and the explosion of gunfire erupts simply dont allow for that supposed series of events orders given, Cameron complying, Cameron then saying he has a gun, Cameron then not complying, deputies restating their orders to have occurred. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Mr. Burris said he doesnt accept that because malfunction is not justification to excuse the deputies conduct. One of the more troubling aspects of this case is the involvement of Deputy Jeremy Rogers, one of the defendants. Mr. Roder added that where the casings were scattered will provide strong evidence as to where the deputies were during the shooting, explaining that the groupings should provide a more clear indication. No police audio-video recorders. Losing two of the greatest loves of our lives in one night shattered us, Kirsten Ely said at apress conferenceon the one-year anniversary of the deaths ofValerie Lundeen Ely and Cameron Ely. Kirsten Ely is listed as an Agent with Kiki E. LLC in California. Kaitland and Kirsten Ely each shared heartfelt letters to their late mother and brother, with Kirsten explaining that the family has been grieving and have been unable to pick up the pieces due to the intentional deception, ineptitude and disregard for human life demonstrated by the Santa Barbara Sheriffs Department, and the conspiratorial obstruction of truth and outright lies put into print by the Santa Barbara D.A.s Office.. The Elys claim the deputies then lied to investigators, and that the District Attorneys Office is now complicit in the alleged cover-up. We dont know why that is, but we do know it shines a light of serious liability on the county, he said. Your passings were preventable, which makes the pain even deeper, she said. Confused circumstances. Now I do have to admit that I briefly went to school with Kirsten Ely, one half of the Elysium Ely duo, but that didn't make my expectations of service any lower. We believe there are others involved, others in the house that evening. The Ely sisters said they cant help wonder if their mother could have been saved if the deputies had intervened sooner. And Ive seen some bad ones.. Use this page here to login for your Independent subscription. So what does that mean? Law enforcement officials claim Cameron announced he had a gun, then lunged at the deputies during their confrontation at the property. He was clearly unarmed with no weapon of any kind, and so the justification of that just seems unjustified, said Mr. Burris. The reason why we dont have the answers is because law enforcement didnt take the time to do their job appropriately, and so we are here today, Mr. Lacy said. Subscribe to our free P.M. Report to receive the days headlines weekdays at 4:15 p.m. Whoops! Kirsten is a thirty-four-year-old. Then again, this is a symptom of people truly in the grip of TDS, ignorance, or both. to stop telling everyone that Cameron killed his mother.. Scott Roder, a forensic specialist working with Lacys team, said Dudleys attempt to explain away the missing sound as a technical issue just doesnt make sense. And for ignoring a pattern and practice of civil rights violations that happened as a result of poorly trained deputies.. Shooting on Easter: 'It's Heart Wrenching', Gannon Stauch's Dad Testifies at Ex's Murder Trial, Boy's Last Words Were: 'I'm Going to Finish Watching Pokemon', 2 California Sheriff's Deputies from Same Department Killed in Separate Incidents Within 2 Weeks, Girl, 1, and Boy 9, Are Fatally Shot in Hostage Situation, Allegedly at Hands of Mother's 'Friend', Fla. 06.01.88 is the birth date of Kirsten. The sheriffs office replied: We cannot comment on pending litigation and referred us to Sheriff Browns statement from October 2020, which merely pre-echoed the same: We will respond to these allegations later, and at the appropriate place, District Court., In addition, the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office sent us a link, ostensibly to the District Attorneys findings., In actuality, the link was just a news release the D.A.s Office issued one day following the incident: During the search, deputies located the suspect on the property of the homicide. 2023 - All Rights Reserved. I asked Kirsten to be my "day of" coordinator for my wedding in Malibu. Previously city included Los Alamos CA. Besides their son Cameron, Ron and Valerie, who wed in 1984, shared two daughters, Kirsten and Kaitland. www.blonderambitions.com is a lifestyle blog {fashion. The family has since filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the county that also claims the deputies failed to give timely medical aid to Valerie when they responded to the scene. Scott Roder, a forensic specialist working with Lacys team, said Dudleys attempt to explain away the missing sound as a technical issue just doesnt make sense. Attorney John Burris, who leads the civil rights law firm Lacy is a member of, said the statements made by Santa Barbara authorities shouldnt be taken at face value. In addition, the lawsuit claims that deputies arriving on scene failed to ascertain whether Valerie Ely was still alive, and actively obstructed fire department medical personnel from entering the home to provide treatment to her. Success! If they have a case it should proceed but this blatant appeal to public judgment for their special cause is not productive. He will always be remembered by me as a nice kid. Santa Barbara News-Press / Ampersand Publishing, LLC unless otherwise specified. However, we have a great matter of certainty these are actually the trajectory of the wounds, given what the DA (District Attorneys Office) has reported and what the coroner has reported in the autopsy report.. Subscribe This story was originally published by theSanta Barbara Independentand is reproduced here in partnership with Edhat. In defense of the threat posed by the suspect, several deputies fired their service weapons at the suspect, fatally wounding him.. Our hearts break every time we think that the simple acts of checking her pulse, administering CPR, or immediately calling medics could have given us back our mom and allowed our father many more years with the love of his life, said Kirsten. Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. The wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Ely family against the County of Santa Barbara and the Sheriff's Office is likely headed to trial after a year of closed-door negotiations failed to result in a settlement agreement. The pain our family has felt is so immense that we are constantly living in a nightmare that we cant wake up from, she said. I have a hard time watching this family. Decedent Cameron immediately fell to the ground motionless. Neither authorities nor the family has provided a clear motive for Valeries murder, though a coroners report noted Cameron, a Harvard graduate who reportedly suffered from mental health problems and was living with his parents, had been acting erratically and aggressively in the days prior. It's epidemic and we need sweeping police reform! During his 16-year career with the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office, Deputy Rogers has been involved in two other fatal shootings. Keep up with Noozhawk's daily news coverage, delivered at 4:15 a.m. right to your inbox. Her age is 37. Only then might they find the justice they seek. Seems like plaintiffs didn't address the central issue - who killed Valerie? With her sister, Kirsten, looking on, Kaitland Ely, left, reads a note to her mother, Valerie, and brother, Cameron, during a news conference in October 2020 at the Ely family's Hope Ranch estate in Santa Barbara. A forensics expert hired by Lacy tested those two samples and found that the blood on the court belonged to Cameron, and that DNA from the blood on the second knife was a mixture of Camerons and an unknown third person, Lacy said. They dont want to investigate because it was easier to blame it on Cameron.. Please reload the page and try again. The lawsuit does not specify the amount in compensatory and punitive damages sought. Wiping away tears as they stood Thursdayin front of their family home in Hope Ranch, actor Ron Elys two daughters condemned what they say was theunjustified use of deadly force and denial of medical care that contributed to the deaths of their mother and brother. Valeries most serious stab injury was to one of her lungs, Lacy said. Kaitland Ely-Sweet then said the deaths of her brother and mother were preventable, which makes the pain even deeper.. The Ely family has not been in contact with the Sheriffs Office since Oct. 29, 2019 some two weeks after the shooting, Kirsten said. I love you more than you will ever know she wrote. glamour. Even if she'd expired by the time they arrived, the decent and right thing to do would have been to properly determine that was so. Robert Eringer is a longtime Montecito author with vast experience in investigative journalism. An autopsy of both Valerie and Cameron is pending. Lacy challenged that assertion, noting other dialogue is clearly audible just before and right after the shooting. 6 items. More so, they dragged a familys name and reputation through the mud when they knew their deputies and their detectives screwed up. That is the basis for the lawsuit., Even if the deputies had good reason to believe Cameron had murdered his mother, Burris went on, they werent legally allowed to shoot him if he didnt pose an immediate threat to their lives. DeWitt M. Lacy, a civil rights attorney with the Law Offices of John L. Burris, which is representing the Ely family, shows the Evidence Rooms digital reconstruction of the shooing of Cameron Ely at a press conference in front of the Ely family home in Hope Ranch on Thursday. Processing They are taking that stance to cover their butts, DeWitt Lacy, attorney for Ron Ely and his daughters, Kirsten and Kaitland, told The Investigator. Santa Barbara Revels May Day Celebration! Deputies, who later discovered Cameron was unarmed, believed he was the prime suspect in Valeries death, The complaint continues: Without cause or legal justification, Deputies for the Santa Barbara (County) Sheriffs Department killed Mr. Ely in contravention of his Fourth Amendment Right to be free from illegal searches and seizures, including having his life forcibly taken from him., The plaintiffs, Ron Ely and his two daughters, seek compensatory and punitive damages from Defendants in connection with the unjustified use of deadly force and denial of medical care. Attorney DeWitt Lacy, a well-known Los Angeles litigator who specializes in police misconduct cases, played the audio recording for members of the media. Ron Ely and his family are contesting the findings ofthe Santa Barbara County District Attorneys Office, which ruled that the fatal shooting of Cameron Ely by sheriffs deputieslast yearwas a justifiable homicide. Really hoping these women get some sort of closure . Rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6, and they are only rarely judged by 12. Ron, 81, who is best known for his titular role in the 1960s Tarzan television series, was home at the time of the incident but had trouble communicating with officers because of a medical condition that impeded his speech, authorities said according to KTLA. Mom Who Said She Threw Away Infant Son's Body Allegedly Stabbed to Death by Baby's Father. The Ely women spoke following remarks from the familys attorney, DeWitt M. Lacy, a civil rights attorney with the Law Offices of John L. Burris. 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What does it matter whether or not they dealt with people less fortunate than them that have been wronged by police? Your browser does not support the video tag. At the time, Cameron was the prime suspect in the stabbing death of his mother, Valerie, earlier that evening. But heres the real kicker, Lacy continued. Valeries most serious stab injury was to one of her lungs, Lacy said. 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The audio recording is conclusive proof that the statement that the DA released saying the shooting was justified is nothing more than a series of lies strung together to protect the deputies from their actions and to conceal the truth of what really happened to Cameron., Kaitland struggled to speak as she remembered her 62-year-old mother, a real-life fairy godmother, and her 30-year-old brother, a gifted athlete and musician who had the most contagious laugh and gave the best hugs. Cameron had the word veritas, Latin for truth, tattooed on his back, Kaitland said, which was illegible when he arrived at the coroners office because it had been shot through so many times by the deputies. We urge everyone to listen to the truth, she went on. Cameron, who was unarmed when he was killed, was the prime suspect in the stabbing death of the siblings mother, Valerie, earlier that evening on October 15, 2019. Were hoping that we will be able to work with the District Attorneys Office and the city Attorneys Office to get the justice that this family so deserves., When reached for comment, District Attorney Joyce Dudley referred to her offices report, published Oct. 5. He also starred in the iconic Seventies show Fantasy Island and the 1975 film Doc Savage: The Man of Iron and Bronze. Mr. Burris did not discuss the criminal components of the investigation that claim that Cameron stabbed his mother to death, but rather focused on the deception of Cameron that suggested he was lawfully killed by authorities. Things were even worse than we had imagined.. Actor Ron Elys Daughters Reject DAs Findings in Officer-Involved Shooting of Brother, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Kirsten Ely, the daughter of actor Ron Ely, wipes away tears while her sister, Kaitland Ely-Sweet, speaks at a press conference on the one-year anniversary of the deaths of their mother, Valerie Lundeen Ely, and brother, Cameron Ely. The district attorneysreport added that when Ely disobeyed verbal commands by deputies, sprang to his feet and moved his hands to his waistband as if grabbing a weapon while saying, I have a gun! shortly after killing his mother, his actions created a reasonable fear of death or great bodily injury in the minds of deputies ..
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