A judge says he will review the personnel records of two police officers and a sergeant who responded to a call involving a mother who allegedly drowned her three children in Reseda to decide which, if any, should be turned over to the children's father in his suit against the city.
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In his Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed in April 2022 against the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, plaintiff Erik Denton alleges that Los Angeles Police Department members were negligent and did not take seriously the indications that the mental health of Liliana Carrillo, the mother of the two girls and one boy, was declining, and did not share information they had with county social workers.
In October, a judge found that Carrillo, 33, was insane at the time of the April 10, 2021, killings of her 6-month-old daughter Sierra, 3-year-old daughter Joanna and 2-year-old son Terry. In Denton's civil suit, Judge Lee Arian denied two previous "Pitchess" motions by the plaintiff to obtain the LAPD officers' records. He heard a third motion on April 16, took the case under submission and ruled in favor of Denton on Friday.
A Pitchess motion in a request to view a law enforcement officer's personnel file to find possible misconduct evidence.
The judge ordered the LAPD's custodian records to come to court May 28, when Arian will conduct an in-chambers inspection of training materials and attendance logs for the officers and the sergeant regarding their investigations of child abuse and endangerment as well as calls they handled involving mental illness.
Arian also will review the trio's work history, performance reviews and prior discipline history "reflecting or related to failure to report to (the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services) or the mishandling of protocol or investigations of minors and/or individuals with mental health (issues)."
The judge will decide which records, if any, that Denton's attorneys are entitled to see. Trial of Denton's suit is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2026.
In opposing Denton's motion, lawyers for the city argued in their court papers that the plaintiff was on a "fishing expedition."
In an interview from jail following her arrest, Carrillo told a reporter for the Bakersfield NBC affiliate KGET that she killed her children because she feared their abuse and sexual assault at the hands of others.
"I drowned them," she said of her children. "I wasn't about to hand my children off to be further abused."
When asked by the KGET reporter if she regretted her actions, she said, "I wish my kids were alive, yes. Do I wish that I didn't have to do that? Yes. But I prefer them not being tortured and abused on a regular basis for the rest of their life."
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