Screenwriter’s Widow Sues State Over Accident
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LOS ANGELES COUNTY — Screenwriter Gary Devore’s widow has sued the state Department of Transportation over his 1997 fatal plunge into the California Aqueduct, charging that dangerous conditions in the road led to his death, according to her lawyer.
Devore, who authorities said was fatigued and disoriented after driving for 12 hours on his way home to Carpinteria from Santa Fe, N.M., got on the Antelope Valley Freeway headed north in the southbound lanes and drove off the road into the aqueduct.
He was missing for more than a year before a tip from an armchair sleuth led detectives to investigate the possibility that he was driving the wrong way. His body was recovered in October.
Geoff Wells, a lawyer with the Santa Monica-based firm Greene, Broillett, Taylor, Wheeler & Panish, said Devore’s widow, Wendy Oates-Devore, hired the firm to represent her in the wrongful death suit, filed last month.
A Caltrans spokesman said he was not yet aware of the lawsuit and could not comment.
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