SoCal's ‘Courageous Citizens' Honored

A San Pedro man who helped prosecutors dismantle the alibi of an Orange County engineer who was subsequently convicted of the 1979 murder of a Torrance woman was among four people honored Friday as "courageous citizens."

Charlie Abbott, a 60-year-old seasoned skipper, was lauded by Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey for donating his time to conduct research and analyze records for the prosecution in the case of Douglas Gordon Bradford, who maintained he was sailing off the coast of Long Beach the evening Lynne Knight was killed.

The District Attorney's Office said Abbott also helped prosecutors to understand, simplify and clearly explain to jurors the complex concepts of currents and wind conditions, as well as weather patterns, to challenge the alibi of Bradford, who had briefly dated the 28-year-old victim.

Bradford was sentenced in December 2014 to 26 years to life in state prison, although he maintained that he was "an innocent man wrongly convicted" of killing Lynne, a neonatal nurse at Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance.

Also honored as courageous citizens were:

  • Hollie Bowers, 21, of Anaheim, who got out of her car to help motorcyclist Jerry Frey after he was struck by a drunken driver and thrown about 100 feet on the eastbound Riverside (91) Freeway in Cerritos on Jan. 5, 2015. Bowers spoke with the motorcyclist, relayed his information to paramedics when they arrived, called the victim's wife to notify her about the crash, then showed up in court to support the victim's wife. The driver, George Edward Allison Jr., 33, of Long Beach, had three prior DUI convictions and was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison after pleading no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
  • Mandeep Kumar, 33, and Robert Espina, 53, both of Los Angeles. Kumar was slashed on the arm after he went to the aid of a woman screaming in Los Angeles' Westlake district on July 23, 2015, and Espina approached police officers to report what he had witnessed. David Michael Hernandez, 21, was convicted in May of assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats, and was sentenced in August to 10 years in state prison.

"Each of these individuals stepped into extremely difficult situations and remained dedicated to the pursuit of justice," Lacey said. "Their actions were driven by a belief in doing the right thing, even when there was great pressure to do otherwise."

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The awards are presented several times a year to people who have performed extraordinary acts of selflessness in assisting in criminal prosecutions, aiding victims, preventing crimes or capturing suspects.

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