22

Happy Birthday, Zac. We miss you so very much.

His mother has posted the following message on the In Memory of Zac Champommier Facebook group page:

Today would have been Zac's 22nd birthday. He brought so much joy to my life in the 18 years he was here. I am truly blessed to have had him as my son. Happy birthday my love.
In his memory, I am asking that you write to the District Attorney's Office and ask that they reopen the case and press charges. Since the trial, it has become even more clear that criminal charges need to be filed against Peter "Taylor" LoPresti. The DA declined to file charges, originally, based on false information.

This DEA agent needs to be taken off the streets. As far as I know, he has not even been reprimanded, although the Civil ruling holds the DEA responsible for battery against Zac because of their employee. That is why there are monetary damages. The DEA has appealed and the process could take up to another year from now to get resolved. However, there is no need to wait for criminal charges. The complete ruling can be read at http://justiceforzac.blogspot.com (click here to read the ruling in its entirety-j.v.)

The address is: 

Los Angeles County District Attorney
Attn: Deputy DA Shannon Presby
System Integrity Division
210 W. Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012 

Please share this information and ask others to do the same. We still need justice for Zac. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We love you, Carol and are thinking of you and Zac today.

20

Today marks what would have been, what should have been, Zac's 20th birthday.


Every day was like a party, when Zac was there. He knew how to bring the fun.




Happy Birthday, Zac.

Happy Birth Day, Carol.

We love you.

Happy Birthday, Zac

Today would have been Zac's 19th birthday. 

The Way Things Stand:


In a few days it will be 7 months since Zac was killed.  Justice For Zac has learned that the Sheriff's Department report on Zac's case is now in the hands of the L.A. District Attorney's Office, which will review the report for any "penal code violations"; Zac's family and friends are waiting for the Deputy District Attorney who is handling Zac's case to decide if there are.

The Sheriff's Department, so quick to assign blame to Zac for his own killing, so quick to brand him as a "drug suspect," has now done a complete about-face and has met with Zac's mother, assuring her that Zac broke no laws; he did nothing wrong. And when we say Sheriff's Department, we are meaning Sheriff Lee Baca, Himself. That was his statement to Zac's mother: "Zac broke no laws; he did nothing wrong." 


But we already knew that. We knew it way before this Coroner's foresenic report (pictured below) was even finished. We knew it.

click to enlarge

The wheels are moving slowly in this case; anyone familiar with the way the justice system moves is aware of that, or is aware of it now. Many of us are learning this in the hardest of ways: the interminable waiting. But because there is waiting, don't be fooled into thinking there is no action beneath the calm, still waters. The wheels keep moving, even when we don't see them, they keep moving .... forward.


Happy Birthday, Zac.

UPDATE: This post at local blog, street-hassle, pretty much sums up our disappointment at the lack of any meaningful local print or television news coverage on Zac's case:

But what is most challenging to our sensibility is the failure of local journalism in this matter. The fact that the public instantly knows the name of the officer in shootings involving an LAPD badge, but does not know any of the principles in this County and Federal matter after nearly seven months, is the single greatest disgrace, the single greatest evidence of impotence, of the LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles Daily News of the past year, and perhaps of the past decade. These have all failed Zac personally; and they have failed his family, his loved ones catastrophically.

You can read the rest at street-hassle.

Birthday Vigil

January 21st would have been Zac's 19th birthday.


We will be marking the occasion with a vigil in Studio City on Friday, January 21st from 4:30 pm to 5:30 p.m. on the northeast corner of Ventura and Laurel Canyon Blvds. 


There will be a short candlelight vigil in the parking lot behind the Chipotle restaurant on Ventura Blvd. immediately following at 5:30 p.m.