VISTA - A vest that was supposed to protect an Oceanside police officer when he was fatally shot can be cut open by plaintiffs for an upcoming civil trial while the criminal verdict is on appeal, a judge ruled Friday.

Officer Tony Zeppetella was killed in a shootout in a credit union parking lot on June 13, 2003.

Lawyers for the officer's convicted killer, Adrian Camacho, had tried to have the vest preserved intact pending his appeal.

However Vista Superior Court Judge Joan Weber said the issue of what went wrong in the area of the vest that was penetrated by the bullet was of the "utmost importance" in the civil case.

Zeppetella's widow, Jamie, is suing Second Chance Body Armor, which made the vest, and Toyobo Co., which produced the Zylon fiber inside that was supposed to stop the bullet. The suit is scheduled for trial in Vista Superior Court on Aug. 4.

Previously, lawyers were only able to photograph the vest and run a probe into it, plaintiff's attorney Gregory Emerson said.

Emerson said his evidence shows that the companies knew, even before Zeppetella's vest was made, that Zylon degrades when exposed to light, heat and humidity.

In previous court proceedings, the defendants have said there's no evidence that Zeppetella's vest was defective, and that it stopped a bullet fired at the officer's back.