A wrongful death lawsuit claims that witnesses saw a 48-year-old North Portland man push his estranged wife down a flight of stairs, causing her to go into cardiac arrest and die.
Portland police say they weren't aware there were any witnesses. The Multnomah County medical examiner's office ruled that 50-year-old Chire Ann Defilippis-Sanchez died of natural causes. And no criminal charges were filed in her Oct. 23 death.
The dead woman's sister is suing Raymond Roy Sanchez for $275,000, claiming Sanchez violated a no-contact order when he showed up at Defilippis-Sanchez's apartment. The lawsuit, which was filed late last month in Multnomah County Circuit Court, also claims that the couple's grandchildren saw Sanchez push their grandmother down the stairs -- and that their grandfather moved her body so he could leave the apartment.
The lawsuit has caught the attention of the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, which has asked homicide Sgt. Rich Austria to take another look at the case.
Portland attorney Christopher D. Wright said that the suit aims to prevent Defilippis-Sanchez's estranged husband from collecting her life insurance, her retirement benefits and her final paycheck.
Sanchez could not be reached for comment.
The suit claims that Sanchez threatened to hurt his grandchildren, their aunt and their mother if they told anyone what they saw. The suit doesn't say how old the grandchildren are.
At the time of Defilippis-Sanchez's death, prosecutors were pursuing a case against Sanchez for alleged harassment of his wife. The trial was scheduled for Nov. 3, but was canceled two days after Defilippis-Sanchez's death.
Sanchez also had a troubled relationship with his two adult daughters. In February 2010, Alisha Sanchez wrote in a restraining order application that her dad tried to hit her with his truck. In another instance, she said her father called her to say if he didn't get his car keys there would be a problem and "we would all pay."
Three days after their mother's death, Alisha Sanchez said her father yelled at them to get out of their mother's home, slammed her hand in the door and punched her sister in the eye. Raymond Sanchez was convicted of fourth-degree assault.
A Pretrial Services employee noted at the time that Sanchez's eyes were "wild and scary," and that he said he was bi-polar and "in crisis." His daughter, Vanessa Sanchez, told the employee that her dad had tried to kill himself in 1999 by jumping off the Ross Island Bridge, and suffered brain damage.
Sanchez has a criminal history in the 1980s and 1990s that includes first-degree robbery, attempting to elude police and drunken driving.
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