A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed by the mother of a 51-year-old mentally disabled man who was left to die in a hot car in August in West Covina. The suit itself was filed by Irene Melendez against the organizations responsible to looking after and transporting her son, John Cortinas, and include “Easterseals, San Gabriel/Pomona Valley's Developmental Services, Holy Family Children's Care and Emanuel Arellano, an Easterseals employee who drove Cortinas.”According to the suit, the defendants were “negligent in keeping Cortinas safe on the day he died.” In a statement, Neama Rahmani, an attorney representing Melendez, said:“We don't know why Timothy was never returned home that day, nor how long he was trapped in the car struggling for his life. We do know, however, that organizations and individuals Irene entrusted with the life of her son neglected their duty to care for him, had no knowledge of his whereabouts for a significant period of time and allowed his exposure to the extremely unsafe environment that led to his death.”According to the suit, Cortinas suffered a “severe intellectual disability disorder, infantile autism, seizure disorder and was borderline non-verbal and had the mental capacity of a child.” Since his death, Melendez has been “struggling to cope” with the abrupt end of his “challenging but cherished life.” In a recent interview, she said,“My heart is broken. To me, he was my purpose, and he was my life. It's just very hard and very difficult. I am going to the cemetery every week.”

City Hall Pomona, California; image courtesy of Cliffo via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org

But what happened, exactly? How did Cortinas end up left in a car on a hot day? Well, according to the complaint, “instead of taking Cortinas to a housing facility in Walnut where he lived, Arellano drove to his own home in the 300 block of South Frankurt Avenue in West Covina and left Cortinas inside the car for several hours.” The day the incident occurred, the temperature outside neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit.It wasn't until a neighbor saw Cortinas in the car that police were alerted, as “Arellano never went back to the car to check on Cortinas,” according to the complaint. Tragically, after responding paramedics attempted to revive him, Cortinas was pronounced dead at the scene around 8:04 p.m.Today, months after the terrible incident, Melendez and her legal team are still fighting for answers or information from key defendants as to how the fatal incident happened. They also want to know why “Arellano allegedly drove to his West Covina home instead of dropping his client off on time at the Walnut group home where he resided.”Family attorney Dean Aynechi chimed in on the matter and said, “You have a special duty to these individuals, and to screw up on the magnitude - for lack of a better word - that they did is shocking.”In response to the pending litigation, Easterseals Southern California, which is cooperating with the investigation, said:"We are deeply saddened by the death of our client, Timothy Cortinas. Our hearts go out to his family and all who knew him.”

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Mother of 51-Year-Old Intellectually Disabled Man Left in Hot Car in West Covina Files Wrongful Death LawsuitGrieving mother files lawsuit after intellectually disabled son dies in hot car