Hi My Belle! Welcome back.
Let me start with saying I am respectfully disagreeing with the legal merits of your using the Goldman vs Simpson wrongful death civil case as a comparable to if Dina should file a wrongful death civil case. The fact that my opinion differs on the merits of Dina's potential civil case against anyone for a "Wrongful Death" claim does not mean that I have anything less than the greatest amount of sympathy for Dina. No one should ever lose a child like this.
The standard to prove wrongful death in a civil case is much lower than in a criminal case. I am assuming that Dina looks at that and thinks "Well this should be easy then. The Goldman's won their case civilly when they lost it criminally so I should be able to bring in my witnesses, get some depositions and prove my case." Unfortunately for Dina, she will have a high mountain to climb for her case to even be agreed to be heard by the judge. The biggest difference here between the Simpson/Goldman case and the Shacknai case is that the police determined Ron Goldman's death to be a homicide. They determined that homicide to be committed by OJ Simpson. The case was thoroughly investigated by the police department and the District Attorneys office. Even after Simpson was found NOT guilty, Simpson was publicly referred to as being the only POI.
I'll list just some of the main differences below and compare the two. Just because I state something like "Max's fall was determined to be an accident" does not mean I agree with that assessment. I am just stating the facts as we know them and how a judge and the legal system will assess them. Its for these same reasons without the AG's office re opening either one of these cases both sides will have a very difficult time bringing a wrongful death lawsuit against anyone.
A. The OJ Simpson case was investigated quite thoroughly over a year by the police and the Da's office. There was mounds and mounds of evidence against OJ Simpson, with his blood being all over the crime scene. The case was declared a homicide with OJ arrested and tried as the murderer. Even after the trial was lost, and Mr Simpson went free, the police and Da's office still maintained that OJ was the murderer. The Goldmans's had the backing and support of the entire police department, their investigation and DA's investigation going into that civil litigation against OJ Simpson.
B. The Max Shacknai case was investigated for 7 weeks and subsequently determined to be nothing other than a tragic accident. The Coronado Police claim they came to this conclusion only after a full police investigation was done of the "accidental" fall. This includes a complete investigation done in the house of the accident scene and interviewing witnesses. Max's fall was declared an accident by the Coronado police.According to Dina the San Diego County District Attorney's office even assisted the Coronado police with their accidental fall diagram. The police and DA's office concluded there was nothing nefarious about Max's fall. The DA, Medical Examiner and police department all chose collectively to declare this an accident. Even when Dina presented them with her own expert analysis and opinions Coronado Police and San Diego Medical Examiner's office still maintained their conclusion that Max's fall and death were an accident. The Police and medical examiner office disagreed with Dina's expert's findings possibly because they felt were biased towards Dina's desired outcome to bolster upcoming litigation she has planned. Or maybe they just found them unreliable. Either way, Coronado Police chose not to reopen the case and keep it classified as an accident.
So as things stand rt now if Dina were to move forward with a wrongful death lawsuit: Max's case is still closed, a crime was never determined to have taken place, its been ruled an accident by multiple departments. The Coronado Police have indicated at this point they have no intention of changing any of their opinions or classification. The County Medical Examiner and apparently the District Attorney's office all backs them on this.
Again going back to The biggest difference here between the Simpson/Goldman case and the Shacknai case is that the police determined Ron Goldman's death to be a homicide. They determined that homicide to be committed by OJ Simpson. The case was thoroughly investigated by the police department and the District Attorneys office. Even after Simpson was found NOT guilty Simpson was publicly referred to as being the only POI.
Why is this such a big deal? Because if Dina decides to spend the money to bring a wrongful death claim against Jonah or the Zahaus, she will still have to fight to even have her case heard. Jonah has a lot of money and can hire the best in legal representation to argue the case to be without merit and to have the whole thing thrown out of court and dismissed. Dina needs to realize that with the Coronado police, SD county medical examiner's office, SD Sheriff and DA's office all disagreeing with her, and stating this being anything other than an accident, it will be very difficult , for her convince a SD judge that her case (lawsuit) should be heard in court. If a judge throws it out, that would mean no depositions for Dina, which is what MyBelle has indicated she really wants.
Looking further down the road, without the case being reopened by the AG's office, it makes winning a civil case like this nearly impossible. Jonah would be willing to spend as much money as possible on the very best legal representation and fight Dina pt by pt, especially if she names GS and ES as defendants. If by some chance the court agrees to hear the case, and millions in legal fees are spent, if Dina loses she can become responsible for the defendants legal fees. That will run in the millions. Based on history I am convinced that Jonah would go after everything Dina owns and is worth if she sues him in any case where he is named a defendant and Dina loses. Or if he is named as a defendant and HE loses he will appeal it for decades tying her up in the courts spending all her money trying to recover any money from him. He is no longer CEO of Medicis so he is not too concerned anymore with his behavior negatively affecting stock price.
