The Region - News from Dec. 30, 1985

The mother of a 16-year-old boy who suffered severe brain damage has sued Orange County mosquito abatement officials, contending they failed to do their job. Linda Morgan said her son, Patrick, who is now unable to speak, was stricken in March by mosquito-borne encephalitis. The suit filed in Orange County Superior Court charges that officials of the Orange County Vector Control District--the agency responsible for mosquito control--failed to eliminate the pests’ breeding ground in a county flood control basin across from Morgan’s home in Huntington Beach. But Gilbert Challet, manager of the district, said there were no cases of mosquito-borne encephalitis reported in Orange County in 1985.