Stow trial: Dodgers exec's testimony contradicts security chief

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A former Dodgers executive testified Monday in the Bryan Stow civil trial filed against the team and former owner Frank McCourt.

Attorneys for brain-damaged assault victim Bryan Stow say Dodger Stadium had a flawed security plan on opening day of 2011, the day Stow was attacked in a parking lot after the game.

The vice president of operations, Francine Hughes, testified Monday that she was the top person overseeing security. She said that the planning for and deployment of security was up to the Los Angeles Police Department and a contracted security manager.

Giants fan Bryan Stow was beaten in Parking Lot 2, where two security officers were assigned. They didn't show up until after Stow was beaten.

Hughes disputes earlier testimony from a security guard who said Hughes had announced a shortfall in security personnel that night and had only half the 300 people needed. Not true, Hughes testified Monday.

Hughes said she understood that 195 LAPD officers would be in the area patrolling area parks, neighborhoods and the parking lots.

In earlier testimony by head of security Shahram Ariane, he said deterrence was degraded that day by the replacement of scores of uniformed LAPD officers with off-duty officers in casual dress. Ariane told jurors it was one reason he quit.

"I am not sure why he left," Hughes testified Monday.

The Dodger defense asked her about numbers: "Do you know whether the security force inside and outside had ever been larger in the history of Dodger Stadium." Answer: "That was the most security we ever had."

The Stow attorneys referred to video of an incident when no security responded. They assert the number of personnel doesn't matter if they aren't where the fights are happening.

"It doesn't matter how many people you have. It depends where they are," said Stow attorney Tom Girardi.

The position of the Dodger defense is that no amount of security can prevent fights in crowds like that, and that the only people to blame are the two convicted men who attacked Stow that night.

The Dodgers defense begins its case Tuesday.