A 5-year-old girl’s paternity is the focus of legal wrangling to determine who has standing to sue over the death of a parking valet in a hit-and-run accident.
Jose Medina was 21 when he was struck and killed as he held open a car door for a patron of the Rockstar Lounge on Jan. 22.
Denver lawyer Gabriel Schwartz, who was representing Medina’s mother, Linda Limon, said she told him her son had no children.
But then one of Medina’s cousins told Schwartz that Medina had fathered the 5-year- old daughter of Melissa Chavez, according to a document filed in Arapahoe County Probate Court.
Limon provided a genetic sample that was twice compared with the child’s DNA, Schwartz said.
The first test of only a few of the genetic markers found an 84.923 percent chance that Limon was a grandparent, Schwartz said.
A second test, that considered all the genetic markers in the sample, found a 99.61 percent chance she is the grandmother, according to a report on the test by Chromosomal Laboratories in Arizona that is included in the court file.
“Based on the genetic results, the alleged grandparent is 254.8 times more likely to be related as a grandparent than to be unrelated,” the report said.
Chavez’s lawyers have asked a judge to order the Denver medical examiner to release DNA taken from Medina.
Limon and her new lawyer, Gregory Giometti, declined to comment on the case recently.
According to a motion filed by Giometti seeking to disqualify Schwartz from representing Chavez in the case, Schwartz withdrew as Limon’s attorney Feb. 15, after receiving the test results.
Schwartz was hired by Chavez after he stopped representing Limon.
The motion calls Schwartz’s representation a conflict of interest because Limon provided him with confidential information that could be used against her in court.
When Schwartz quit Limon’s case, he told her “now that we know and have scientific evidence to prove he had a daughter, you no longer have any lawful claim to your son’s estate and any proceeds from it,” the motion says. “As the claim is with the minor child, there really is nothing left for us to do. Any recovery against persons or entities that may be found civilly liable for Jose’s tragic death will, by law, go to Jose’s only child.”
Another lawyer, Nancy Crow, is substituting for Schwartz as Chavez’s attorney, and Limon has withdrawn the motion to disqualify him.
Norma Vera-Nolasco pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in Medina’s death, and three others pleaded guilty to acting as accessories to the crime. All four were in the country illegally.
The valet service where Medina worked, which was owned by his cousin Everardo Moses Garcia III, didn’t have the required license. Nor was the Rockstar Lounge licensed for a valet service.
Schwartz said at this point, he doesn’t know whom the target of a suit would be other than “anyone who is liable.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
