4 Claim Injuries in Crush Around Madonna

Four fans of rock singer Madonna have filed injury claims against Anaheim, alleging that the city failed to stop a stampede at Anaheim Stadium that started when the singer asked 55,000 fans at a July 18 concert to ignore security guards and surge toward the stage.

Officials at the city-owned stadium and with the private company managing security at the concert denied responsibility for the incident and angrily blamed Madonna for the crush.

Accounts differ on her comments. She is variously described as having cooed into the microphone, “this is a song I can’t do unless you’re close to me” or “everyone come down here to me,” then telling fans to “ignore the (security) men in the yellow jackets.”

But stadium officials are clear on what happened next. Thousands of fans poured through aisles and overran chairs to get closer to their idol. Claimants reported seeing others hurt, but stadium officials said that only two fans sought medical help at a first aid station on the premises.

Madonna finished her final four songs, and the crush ended when the house lights went up.

Three of the claims describe cuts and bruises resulting from the incident.

A fourth claim was filed by Haylee Lin Winters, 24, of West Hollywood, who said she was three months pregnant at the time of the concert. She writes in her claim: “I hit my stomach when I was knocked to the ground. I began (bleeding) and having complications. Bruises all over my legs, etc.”

Winters said in an interview that she has since miscarried.

Madonna could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for her personal manager, Freddy De Mann of Demand Entertainment in Los Angeles, said he would not comment on the incident and referred a reporter to a New York publicist who could not be reached for comment. Efforts to reach Brian Murphy, president of Avalon Attractions, which presented the event, were also unsuccessful.

Tom Vance, risk manager for the City of Anaheim, declined to discuss specifics of the claims.

Operations and security officials for the concert charged that Madonna’s crew ignored officials’ requests that she refrain from urging masses of Anaheim fans to leave their seats--something security officials said they worried she might do because it happened at a previous concert in Seattle. The Anaheim concert came at the end of a national tour for Madonna.

“It was as irresponsible an act as I’ve seen by a rock performer, and we’ve been doing these (concerts) since 1967,” said Peter Kransky, vice president of Contemporary Services Corp., which provided security for the sellout concert.

“We voiced our concern over what was going to happen, and they (Madonna’s managers) went ahead and did it anyway,” said Greg Smith, Anaheim Stadium operations manager.

Singer Defended

“There was a conversation (at the stadium before the concert) with her personal manager and the security officials. Brian Murphy . . . objected as well and said he was very much concerned, but Madonna wanted to do it.”

Stephen Rennie, vice president at Avalon Attractions, defended Madonna, saying the singer was making her first tour of large outdoor stadiums and was inexperienced in crowd behavior.

“There was some comment about ‘ignore these guys,’ ” he said. “She made one flip comment . . . but here’s a girl who had never played stadiums before and here are 55,000 adoring fans. . . . Performers get up on stage, and you suddenly realize that all these people are out there doing everything you ask them to do. You realize that if you say, ‘Put up your hands,’ they will actually put up their hands. . . . She was excited.”

Claimants and attorneys who filed the Anaheim claims described them as a necessary first step before lawsuits can be filed. None of those involved would say how much they will ask in damages.

Winters said she is an attorney and will represent herself should a lawsuit be filed.

‘The Guard Hit Her’

Tarzana-based attorney Steven W. Marks said he will represent a Van Nuys teen-ager named Molly Siton, should a lawsuit be filed.

“My client is a young 18-year-old who was . . . not hurt that seriously,” Marks said. The claim on file with the city clerk in Anaheim specifies Siton’s injuries as a “sore middle back, sore ribs and bruises.”

Describing the incident in more detail than the claim, Marks said: “She was stopped by a security guard who is holding her back and the crowd is pushing her forward and eventually she is knocked to the ground and dragged around. . . . The guard hit her with an open hand.”

In an interview, Winters elaborated:

“People all around me were knocked over and said they were hurt. A girl next to me screamed, ‘I broke my foot,’ and some other guy had these cute little kids and the kids were crying because people were stepping all over them. . . . If you looked around you, as far as you could see, there were people pushing.”

The others who filed claims against the city are Diane Howard, 39, of Van Nuys, for injuries to the head, shoulders and back, and Susan Steinberg, 22, of Sherman Oaks, for emotional trauma.

Catastrophe Recalled

Kransky and others said they thought immediately of a 1979 catastrophe in which 11 people were killed at a rock concert in Cincinnati, trampled to death by fans who went out of control in their panic to get into a concert by the rock group the Who.

Scott Milne III, an insurance broker at Albert G. Ruben & Co., a Century City company that brokered insurance for the concert to Avalon Attractions and Contemporary Services Corp., said claims against performers for inciting crowd disturbances are rare.

“I’ve talked to a lot of the people involved and the other parties (in this case) view Madonna as responsible,” he said.

Then he paused for a moment and added: “I hope this material girl has some material insurance.”