Hakimian v. Gabbai
On January 22, 1996 around 7 a.m., Danny Hakimian,
a 50 year-old man from Iran who had a long, tortured
history of disabling mental illness and repeated hospitalization
for manic depression, was carried into his L.A. apartment
on Beverly Boulevard by two men. He was seen by a witness
three feet away red faced, blood smeared upon him, looking
burned with ripped, disheveled clothing. He looked badly
beaten, perhaps burned.
Six hours later the landlord noticed water trickling
into the apartment below his. She went to his room,
knocked, but there was no response. Using the pass key,
she opened the door, only to see Danny naked, curled
up in a ball, shivering, painted red in the middle of
the room. She smelled fire. She called his brother and
told him to get help.
 Responding
authorities came, saw that he was near death, 30% of
his body covered with severe burns. He was taken to
Cedars-Sinai. Crime was suspected. It was later concluded
by the LAPD and LAFD that he probably lit himself on
fire. Drawing scrawled onto the walls of flames, immortality,
etc. led all to conclude this was a crazy man who did
this to himself, or was set afire elsewhere. His brothers
hired Garo Mardirossian, who went to the apartment within
days with an investigator.
Piecing together shreds of fibers in the carpet, bathroom,
analyzing evidence on a stove and surrounding areas,
Garo gathered proof that everyone had jumped to the
wrong conclusion. The truth was, Danny had been burned
by a 30 year-old defective stove. He said as much to
a police officer at the scene, that there had been a
"flash" in his broken English, but nobody
believed him. |
