Parents of Slain Oak View Teen File Wrongful-Death Suit

The parents of slain Oak View teen Kali Manley filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Friday against the 23-year-old Ojai man accused of strangling their daughter last December.

The lawsuit--filed in Ventura County Superior Court a day before the one-year statute of limitations expired--accuses murder defendant David Alvarez of causing the girl’s death.

Charles and Holly Manley are also accusing other unnamed individuals of conspiring with Alvarez to hide evidence and withhold information on the location of their 14-year-old daughter.

The couple are seeking unspecified damages, as well as recovery of funeral expenses.

Kali Manley, a Nordhoff High School freshman, disappeared Dec. 19 from a girlfriend’s house after getting into a truck with Alvarez and another man.

Her body was found a week later hidden in an icy drainpipe in the mountains above Ojai. Alvarez led authorities to the scene and pointed to the spot where searchers found the body.

Alvarez is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 18 on charges of murder and attempted rape. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted.

Ventura attorney David Shain declined comment on the lawsuit, saying he and his clients will withhold comment until the murder case has ended.

“The lawsuit speaks for itself,” Shain said. “I will have no further comment until the conclusion of the criminal trial.”

The lawsuit alleges Alvarez and other individuals, whose names could be added to the lawsuit later, inflicted intentional emotional distress on the Manleys by not disclosing the location of the teen’s body.

The girl’s disappearance last winter prompted a massive search of the Ojai Valley back country. For days, searchers combed trails and riverbeds on foot and by helicopter.

Alvarez and other individuals were aware of the location of the body but did not tell the parents or law enforcement officials, the lawsuit alleges.

Also, the defendant and others were in possession of evidence, such as the victim’s clothing, that could have hastened discovery of the body, the lawsuit states.

Instead, that evidence was destroyed or concealed, and those individuals who knew the identity of the alleged perpetrator intentionally kept quiet, the lawsuit contends.

Defense attorney James Farley, who is representing Alvarez in the murder case, declined comment Friday on the lawsuit.

“That’s their right,” he said.

Alvarez has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, and his attorneys have fought to get the allegations of attempted rape dismissed.

Evidence at Alvarez’s preliminary hearing in July showed Kali Manley met the defendant for the first time while visiting a girlfriend’s house.

The victim left the house with Alvarez and his friend Robert Miears, and all went to Alvarez’s mobile home after buying wine coolers, according to testimony at the hearing.

Kali Manley and Alvarez later went to a back bedroom and she was never seen alive again.

Alvarez remains held without bail in the Ventura County Jail.