Video shows ‘unprovoked’ attack by 80-year-old Redondo Beach Elks Lodge member – Daily Breeze

An 80-year-old man whose fight at the Redondo Beach Elks Lodge was caught on video is suing the lodge and two of its former members.

Joseph Lordeon of Redondo Beach, in a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, accused the lodge, former senior leader Nashana Steele and her husband, Lamont Steele, of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, vicarious liability, negligence and elder abuse. .

See also: The beating of an 80-year-old Elks Lodge member comes across the Redondo Beach club

The suit seeks unspecified damages.

Security camera footage of the May 5 meeting, obtained by the Southern California News Group, shows Lamont Steele searching the Loerden cabin, wearing the MAGA hat, then punching him repeatedly in the lobby.

“This violent attack was completely unprovoked,” said former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who is assisting Lordeon in the case. “Why anyone would do such a thing to an elderly and frail man is beyond me. And to believe that the perpetrator and his wife were officers of that club. That makes it even more blatant.”

Neither Nashana Steele, who resigned from her senior leadership position and no longer frequents the Redondo Beach lodge, nor Lamont Steele, whom the Elks have permanently kicked out, returned phone calls seeking comment.

Officials with the Chicago-based Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks declined to discuss the alleged attack because it is a criminal matter.

See also: Felony charges in beating of 81-year-old man at Redondo Beach Elks Lodge

“The benevolent and protective order of Elks has always viewed our lodges as places where members and their guests can feel comfortable and enjoy social opportunities in a caring and friendly environment,” spokesman Rick Gathen told SCNG in June. “There is no place for acts of violence in our lodges and the alleged reports are both disturbing and unacceptable.”

Founded in 1868, BPOE has nearly 1 million members who gather at 2,000 lodges in the U.S. and abroad. The Elks provide charitable services aimed at building stronger communities, sponsoring college scholarships, youth basketball teams, drug awareness programs and the like.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office charged Lamont Steele with felony battery and elder abuse. He is awaiting trial.

Lordeon told Southern California News Group Calvary it started around 4:30pm on Cinco de Mayo when he visited the 70-year-old Elks Lodge on the east edge of Oceanfront Veterans Park to meet up with some friends.

On the way out, about 15 minutes later, he said, a member of the lodge invited him to get some food at a private party attended by about 45 people at another bar on the north end of the lodge.

Lordeon, a real estate agent, was handed a plate, helped himself to a salad from a buffet table and started to leave. However, Nashana Steele blocked Lordeon and ordered her out of the cabin because she was upset that he was wearing a Donald Trump hat, the lawsuit states. Lordeon can be seen in the video having what appears to be a heated argument with Nashana Steele.

Lordeon left the dining area but not the lodge and sat down on a sofa in the hall to eat his food.

Nashana Steele sought out Lamont Steele, who was on a patio at the cabin, to kick Lordeon out, describing him to her husband as wearing a Trump hat, the suit states.

However, a heavily redacted seven-page Redondo Beach Police report offers a conflicting motive for the attack, stating that someone told Lamont Steele that a man had assaulted his wife.