If anyone has ever been to a Dodgers-Giants game at Chavez Latrine you know how lax security is and I see this woman getting awarded big money.

Suit begins against Dodgers by blinded woman
From wire service reports
Article Launched: 01/08/2008 06:57:38 AM PST

LOS ANGELES - Opening statements are scheduled today in the trial of a lawsuit by a woman left legally blind in her right eye after being punched by another woman during a Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants game at Dodger Stadium.

"This action arises from a dispute between two baseball fans," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Fruin said in reading a brief summary of the case yesterday to prospective jurors.

A panel of eight men and four women was picked by late afternoon to serve on the panel.

Maria Parra Helenius, 31, of Los Angeles, sued the Dodgers and Denise Ordaz in Los Angeles Superior Court in May 2006 and is scheduled to be the trial's first witness today.

The licensed vocational nurse said she went to Dodger Stadium with her boyfriend and two others on July 17, 2005, to see a game against the team's arch-rival, the San Francisco Giants.

Helenius and a companion supported the Dodgers, but her boyfriend -- Bay Area physician Mikko Helenius, whom she later married -- and the fourth person in their party were Giants fans, the lawsuit states.

Helenius, seated in the lower reserve level on the first base side, claims she was heckled by Ordaz, a Dodger fan who was seated about three rows away from Helenius and the others.

Ordaz, 27, used foul language and racial slurs against Helenius even though both are Latinas, according to the plaintiff's court papers. She claims Ordaz also chastised her forhaving a white boyfriend.

Helenius complained to Dodger Stadium security officials, who moved Ordaz and her party to different seats and held them for 10 minutes after the game -- the Giants won 4-1 -- to allow Helenius and her boyfriend to leave, according to her court papers.

However, Ordaz managed to catch up to Helenius in the parking lot and punched her in the face, the suit states.

Along with the partial loss of sight in her right eye, Helenius -- who had 20/20 vision before the attack -- also suffered three facial fractures, according to her lawyer, David R. Glickman.

Helenius' court papers state that with nearly 170 security officers on duty, the Dodgers should have ejected Ordaz, escorted her to her car and made sure she left the premises rather than move her to other seats.

Dodger attorneys argued in court papers that the case should have been dismissed before trial because the security team did not have reason to believe Ordaz would harm Helenius.

But Fruin, denying a motion by the Dodgers to dismiss the case before trial, ruled July 26 that a jury should decide whether the security team should have taken stronger measures to protect Helenius.

Ordaz pleaded no contest in March 2006 to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 270 days in jail and probation, according to a copy of the plea bargain attached to Helenius' lawsuit.

Ordaz, also the subject of a cross-complaint by the Dodgers, is representing herself during the civil trial.

Fruin granted her request to skip some days of the trial because of her job commitments. But he ordered Ordaz to be present on the days she is scheduled to testify and also advised her to be in the courtroom as often as possible.

Fruin said he expects the testimony to finish by Friday.

The attack on Helenius came less than two years after 25-year-old Marc Antenorcruz of Covina was shot to death in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on Sept. 19, 2003, also during a Dodgers-Giants game.

The shooter, Pete Marron of South Gate, was 20 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in the Antenorcruz killing and was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2004 to 50 years to life in prison.

Glickman said he will ask Fruin to allow the jury to consider the fatal shooting in assessing whether the Dodgers should have taken greater precautions concerning security at the game Helenius attended.