OCEANSIDE —— Tony Zeppetella told his wife that the bullet-proof vest made with Zylon fiber that he would wear as a rookie Oceanside police officer was light-weight, flexible and as protective as other vests.

"He really believed it, and that made me pretty confident in it," Jamie Zeppetella, 27, of Oceanside said in a recent interview.

What the Zeppetellas did not know was that there were concerns about Zylon fiber losing its strength faster than other material used in bullet-proof vests. Three months before Michigan-based Second Chance Body Armor made Tony Zeppetella's vest in 2002, the company's president wrote a letter to other company executives warning of potentially deadly flaws in its Zylon vests.

In that letter, which was discussed in deposition testimony last year, Richard Davis, the executive (who is also the company founder) said one option for the company —— which he later said he did not view as a serious, "viable solution" —— was to do nothing and wait "until one of our customers is killed or wounded" or "some other entity exposes the Zylon problem."

"In either case, we will be forced to make excuses as to why we didn't recognize and correct the problem," Davis wrote. "In the eyes of law enforcement we will either be stupid for not knowing, or greedy and uncaring for knowing and not doing anything about it."

Tony Zeppetella, 27, married and the father of an infant son at the time, was one of Second Chance's customers.

He suffered gunshot wounds all over his body, including two alleged to have penetrated his vest, and was killed in the line of duty on June 13, 2003, nearly eight months after his vest had been made and almost a year after the warning letter had been written.

Prosecutors have charged Adrian George Camacho, 29, a five-time convicted felon and twice-deported illegal immigrant from Mexico, with first-degree murder. They are seeking the death penalty if Camacho is convicted of the slaying, which took place during a traffic stop in front of the Navy Federal Credit Union on Avenida de la Plata in Oceanside.

Meanwhile, Jamie Zeppetella filed a lawsuit in November 2003 against Second Chance Body Armor, Toyobo Co., a Japanese company that produces Zylon fiber, and others involved in the distribution of her husband's "bullet-proof" vest, alleging that her husband would have survived if his vest had performed as promised.

Today, almost 20 months have passed since Tony Zeppetella was killed, but the criminal and civil cases remain unresolved. The trials of both cases at the Superior Court's North County branch in Vista recently were postponed until later this year.

"Until both of those issues are behind me, I can't take the next step in my life," Jamie Zeppetella said, adding that she will have no closure while the cases are pending. "I feel like I'm stuck, and I have been stuck for two years."

Camacho has pleaded not guilty.

Second Chance, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2004 in the wake of several lawsuits related to its Zylon vests, referred questions to its bankruptcy attorneys, who could not be reached for comment.

Toyobo's U.S. spokesman, Kent Jarrell, said the shooting of Zeppetella was a "horrible, horrible crime with multiple gunshots," but that Toyobo has not seen any evidence that Zylon was "involved in any way."

Toyobo has described Zylon, a synthetic fiber used in the making of some bullet-proof vests, as the "strongest man-made fiber in the world."

Lawsuit alleges vest failed

Tony Zeppetella was shot a total of 13 times.

Jamie Zeppetella's lawsuit alleges that at least three bullets penetrated Tony Zeppetella's vest, with two "traveling completely through" it, leaving him "incapable of defending himself against further aggression" by Camacho.

Jamie Zeppetella's lawsuit also alleges that Toyobo conducted tests that showed Zylon retained only 35 percent of its strength when exposed to visible light for six months. The test also showed that Zylon weakened faster when exposed to the heat and humidity generated by an officer's body during normal wear of a bullet-proof vest, according to the lawsuit.

Toyobo notified vest manufacturers, including Second Chance, of that data in 2001, the lawsuit alleges.

Davis, Second Chance's president and founder, testified at a deposition in September 2004 that he would have expected Zeppetella's vest to stop bullets, and that Zeppetella's vest appeared to have "performed worse than any of the other tests I know of."

However, in a memo posted on the company's Web site to respond to November 2004 reports in the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, Davis wrote that Zeppetella's vest did not fail, and that two bullets on the edge of Zeppetella's vest "either penetrated or pushed the armor aside."

Company officials warn of problems

Documents and depositions show Second Chance officials discussed potential problems with Zylon as early as 2001.

In a Dec. 18, 2001, memo to Richard Davis about the "Zylon Situation," which was discussed in deposition testimony, one of Second Chance's research directors at the time, Aaron Westrick, wrote that Second Chance should "immediately notify our customers of the degradation problems we are experiencing" with the vest models made with Zylon.

"Second Chance should make the right, difficult decisions regarding this issue," Westrick wrote. "Lives and our credibility are at stake."

Davis testified at his deposition that he did not recall receiving that memo, but that Westrick had urged him in conversations to notify customers of the problem of Zylon losing strength.

In his own letter of July 29, 2002, Davis wrote that Second Chance faced two problems: that Zylon seemed to be getting weaker faster than other material used in body armor and that newer ammunition was being promoted to the public.

In that letter, Davis wrote that the company's "options" for solutions included "operating as though nothing is wrong until one of our customers is killed or wounded" or "some other entity exposes the Zylon problem."

Davis has testified that in response to his letter, the company "changed paths," agreeing to do extensive testing on Zylon vests to figure out what was wrong. But the company did not recall any vests or directly advise police officers of concerns about them, Davis testified.

Immediately recalling Zylon vests without more test data would have put other officers' lives at risk because some officers refused to wear any bullet-proof vests before the lighter-weight models made with Zylon, which had saved 38 officers, went on the market, Davis testified.

Davis testified that Tony Zeppetella "probably" had the right to know that Davis had concerns about the degradation of Second Chance's Zylon vests and that Davis "would have liked to have told him."

Companies blame each other

Several tests were conducted on the safety of the vests, according to court documents.

Second Chance and Toyobo have pointed the finger of blame for problems with Second Chance's vests at each other in bankruptcy court documents, accusing each other of hiding or ignoring the results of safety tests.

Second Chance alleges that Toyobo provided it with test data in November 2001 that showed a decline in Zylon's strength, but a month later said that data was unreliable and not statistically correct.

Only after Second Chance stopped making the vests and announced in September 2003 that the company's own tests showed Zylon problems could pose a safety issue for law enforcement officers did Toyobo disclose 2001 test data showing Zylon fabric in body armor degrades faster than Zylon fiber itself, Second Chance alleges.

Jarrell, Toyobo's U.S. spokesman, said Toyobo always has provided test data about Zylon fiber's characteristics to vest manufacturers, including Second Chance, and that Toyobo denies Second Chance's allegation that it hid test results.

Toyobo has maintained that other vest manufacturers have used Zylon without the problems Second Chance's vests have encountered. Jarrell said the National Institute of Justice recently certified a new vest model that contains Zylon, and that Toyobo still sells Zylon to "a dozen" vest manufacturers.

Toyobo alleges that any problems with Second Chance's Zylon vests were because of Second Chance's design and manufacturing processes, not problems with Zylon.

Widow 'shocked' by vest problems

Jamie Zeppetella said she first learned that potential problems existed with her husband's vest three or four months after he had been shot.

"I was really shocked, very upset, disappointed," she said.

Jamie Zeppetella said she decided to take action against the companies named in her lawsuit to hold them responsible, to make sure vests like her husband's are no longer made and to keep other officers from wearing them.

Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.