A now-retired CHP officer was diagnosed with a vision disorder five days before he crashed into a 24-year-old man walking in the street, according to newly revealed medical records.
The former officer, Alfredo Oros Gutierrez, previously faced misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges in the case after prosecutors alleged he was riding his department-issued motorcycle at nearly 70 mph at 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2019, when he fatally struck Cezannie Mount, who was walking home from work in the lanes of Del Amo Boulevard instead of on the sidewalk.
But after those speed calculations came under scrutiny during Gutierrez’s trial earlier this year, jurors ultimately deadlocked, and a judge declared a mistrial. Prosecutors chose not to refile criminal charges for a “multitude of reasons” while pointing out it had taken three years to get to the first trial only to have it result in a hung jury.
But attorneys for Mount’s family, who are suing Gutierrez and the CHP, say they have new evidence that could have affected the outcome of the criminal case.
“In my 30 years of lawyering, it’s the biggest smoking gun in a case,” said Eric Dubin, one of two attorneys representing Mount’s family. “We feel the jury trial would’ve had a different outcome if the jury had known about the left eye injury.”
Partial records shared with the Long Beach Post by Dubin show Gutierrez, who was 36 at the time, went to an eye specialist in Irvine on Oct. 22, 2019, complaining that a dark halo had recently started distorting vision in his left eye.
“Patient reports he was driving around 9 p.m. when he noticed a cloud over his central vision in the left eye,” an opthalmologist at UC Irvine wrote during the consultation. “He states he can see through the cloud and that the cloud only covers his central vision.”
By the end of the visit, the eye specialist diagnosed Gutierrez with central serous chorioretinopathy, a visual disorder that causes a fluid buildup under the retina. The issue can cause a small detachment of the retina, and over time, cause more visual impairments such as making objects appear smaller or farther away than they are.
That type of diagnosis, according to the Mount family’s attorneys, would be considered a “career-ending” injury for Gutierrez.
Michael Schwartz, who served as Gutierrez’s defense attorney during the criminal trial, said the medical records are not the smoking gun the Mount family’s attorneys say they are. Gutierrez’s vision was “perfectly fine” at the time of the crash, Schwartz said, explaining that a doctor had cleared him for driving. An attorney representing Gutierrez in the civil lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment.
Evidence about eye problems would have been “highly relevant” in the criminal case against Gutierrez, according to Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert, whose office handled the case.
Haubert said his office was not informed about Gutierrez having any kind of eye condition, but if it’s true, it “could have convinced a jury that what he did was reckless.”
Haubert said it’s too late for his office to consider refiling misdemeanor charges, but the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, which previously declined to file felony charges against Gutierrez, said it will reexamine the case, according to a spokesperson. Prosecutors will look at the evidence “and any new information to determine whether the previous decision to refer this matter for misdemeanor prosecution can or should be reconsidered,” the DA’s office said in an email.
It’s unclear if the CHP knew about Gutierrez’s visit to the eye specialist and his diagnosis.
A spokesperson with the CHP declined to respond to questions from the Long Beach Post, saying the agency was unable to comment due to the pending litigation.
Gutierrez, who was seriously hurt in the crash, no longer works in law enforcement after his injuries forced him to take a medical retirement from the CHP.
The Press-Telegram first reported on the records and Dubin’s accusations last week.