Son struggles to visit dying dad

Regardless of whom you believe in this he-said, she-said story, Nicholas Luciano has had a terrible holiday season.

The trouble for Luciano started at about 1 p.m. Sunday when he was pulled over for what police said was a routine code violation at Bristol Street just south of Newport Boulevard near the 73 Freeway.

As the officer walked up to the driver’s side of the Lancaster man’s car, he saw Luciano quickly shove something into his mouth, Sgt. Mark Manley said.

When questioned, Luciano admitted he swallowed some pills because he was nervous about getting caught with them, Manley said.

So the police, worried about the man’s health, called for an ambulance ticketed for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian to have him checked out.

He was arrested on suspicion of possession of a drug without a prescription and released, Manley said.

Luciano had Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, and another drug, but Manley wasn’t sure which one, he said.

But Luciano’s family offers a much different story, accusing the police of Scrooge-like behavior as the Lancaster man struggled to catch a plane to get back to South Carolina to see his father, who is gravely ill.

Luciano’s sister, Lori, who was on the phone with him at the time of his arrest as she tried to give him directions to the airport, denied that her brother swallowed any pills and added that he insisted he be drug-tested at Hoag to prove his innocence.

Nicholas Luciano’s woes continued as he struggled to get his car back and change his flight plans to see his father.

“Right now we’re in hospice, and we don’t think he’s going to make it past the holidays,” Lori Luciano said of her father’s health. “Is this what Costa Mesa does to travelers when they get lost? And not to listen to a man who’s trying to get on a plane because his father’s dying? How inhuman can you possibly get?”

Nicholas Luciano was unavailable to comment himself as he struggled to change his flight plans, said Lori, who lives in Bluffton, S.C.

Nicholas Luciano has prescriptions for painkillers after he hurt his back in a savage mugging several years ago, Lori Luciano said.

He works in Palmdale in street maintenance, and his back gets cranky at times so he needs his medicine, she added. Lori Luciano didn’t think it was any big deal for someone to have their medication mixed together in the same container.

“I probably have aspirin and Benadryl in the same container in my purse, so give me a break,” Lori Luciano said.

Nicholas Luciano’s first attempt to reschedule his flight was delayed when he ended up in the wrong line at the airport.

He managed to straighten that out in what he thought was still enough time to catch his flight, but he was told he couldn’t get on board.

He was eventually directed to LAX, where he wasn’t able to get on one flight Monday afternoon and was told to try to catch another at about midnight.

“So we’ve paid more than $1,100 for this plane ticket so far,” Lori said, referring to the extra fees for changing the flight plans. And that doesn’t take into account the hassle of trying to wire money to her brother and the $371 he spent getting his car out of the impound yard.

“Couldn’t the police have just talked to the man and work it out?” Lori wondered. “Why in the world did he have to get in an ambulance? He cooperated, but in doing so he totally messed himself up. If a person is not sick, why call an ambulance?”

The officers, though, “erred on the side of caution and said, ‘We can’t have an OD issue,’ so they transported him to Hoag for evaluation,” Manley said.

As of Christmas Day, Nicholas was still stuck in Los Angeles, Lori Luciano wrote in an e-mailed update.

An early-morning security issue at Los Angeles International Airport prevented about 150 weary travelers from boarding their flights, which sparked a near-riot, Lori wrote.

Nicholas, angered and having eaten only a cookie for breakfast, slept in the terminal while awaiting a 4:30 a.m. reticketing procedure, she wrote.

Lori hasn’t spoken to Nicholas since the ticketing fiasco.

His cellphone goes straight to voice mail, she wrote, believing its battery must be exhausted.

“Pray for us,” she wrote.

PAUL ANDERSON is the city editor and may be reached at (714) 966-4633 or at [email protected].