The family of Corazon Dandan has filed suit against the BART agency for wrongful death, alleging that the transit system was aware of the threat posed by the man accused of shoving Dandan in front of a moving train last July.
The suit argues that the death of Corazon Dandan "does not constitute an unforeseeable accident but rather is a direct result of the violence that BART has ignored and enabled throughout their stations through its negligent conduct."
As the Chronicle reports, the suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court late Tuesday by Dandan's nephew, Dr. Alvin Dandan, and other family members. It contends that the suspect in the case, Trevor Belmont aka Hoak Taing, was known to BART agents and BART Police, and had previously been ordered to stay away from BART stations and trains due to previous incidents.
The suit further alleges that BART "has taken no meaningful action to make its platforms safer in order to prevent people being pushed or falling onto the tracks."
Corazon Dandan, 74, was on her way home from work as a telephone operator at the Westin St. Francis hotel on July 1, 2024 and was standing waiting for her train home to Daly City on the Powell Street platform when she was allegedly approached and assaulted by Belmont.
Dandan was shoved in front of a moving train, according to surveillance video, and the train struck her and knocked her back onto the platform. She died from her injuries.
"What we want is for this not to happen again," says Alvin Dandan, speaking to the Chronicle, adding that the lawsuit should be a "wake up call" for the city — though it is a lawsuit against BART.
As we reported in October, Belmont, 49, is mentally ill and homeless, and had cycled in and out of the criminal justice system. He clearly had a history of threatening behavior, and had multiple stay-away orders against him, including an order from a judge to stay away from all California schools. In 2013, he was convicted of assault and battery on a member of the SF State community, and was ordered to stay away from that unversity campus as well.
The Chronicle found that Belmont had 27 arrests on his record over the course of 17 years. Much of this came to light after Dandan's family filed the legal claim in September that was the precursor to the lawsuit filed today.
Belmont, who has a court appearance scheduled in February and who has been in psychiatric care, has not yet entered a plea in the case. He faces one count of murder, and one count of inflicting great bodily injury on a vulnerable person, with an enhancement that he was lying in wait.
