Companies trade accusations in fight over bulletproof vests

CENTRAL LAKE, Mich. -- Richard Davis invented a flexible, concealable type of body armor after taking a bullet while delivering a pizza. He vouched for his products by donning them and shooting himself with a gun -- nearly 200 times over three decades.

The company he founded in 1972, Second Chance Body Armor Inc., became the nation's biggest supplier of bulletproof vests to law enforcement agencies. It claims to have saved more than 920 wearers from death or serious injury.

Now, Second Chance is drawing fire of a different sort: allegations that its vests are defective.

The accusations raise questions about the reliability of body armor worn by thousands of police officers around the nation.

The controversy has generated at least six lawsuits, federal and state investigations, and finger-pointing between Second Chance and the producer of Zylon, a high-tech synthetic fiber woven into many of Second Chance's vests.

One lawsuit blames Second Chance armor in the shooting death of a California policeman last July. The latest case was filed last week by the state of Arkansas, demanding a $454,000 refund for 557 vests bought for officers there.

Cases have also been brought on behalf of vest buyers in Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois and Connecticut, where the state attorney general accused the company of causing police to play "real-life Russian roulette."

Second Chance, whose slogan is "We save lives," denies it has acted irresponsibly. Second Chance went public with concerns about Zylon in September and stopped making two vests containing the fabric.

Safety is their mission

"We've been in business for 32 years and officer safety has always been our mission," said Paul Banducci, president of the company based in this town 200 miles north of Detroit.

Second Chance took the Ultima, a 100-percent Zylon vest weighing around 2 1/2 to 3 pounds, to market in 1999. Later came the Ultimax, a blend of Zylon and other fibers. The two thin, light vests eventually accounted for 40 percent of the company's sales.

Then came the June 13 shooting of Tony Zeppetella, 27, of the Oceanside, Calif., police department. Three bullets from a 9 mm pistol penetrated his vest -- an upgraded Ultima -- and two entered his body, Capt. David Heering said.

Second Chance contends Zeppetella's Ultima II performed to federal standards. The fatal bullets struck about an inch from the vest's edge. For certification tests, bullets are fired no closer than three inches from the edge so the destructive energy can dissipate, company spokesman Gregg Smith said.

"This is a defective product and they knew it," countered Gregory Emerson, spokesman for the Zeppetella family.

The investigation is incomplete, but Smith acknowledged this may be the first time one of the company's vests failed to stop a bullet it was designed and certified to block.

In the meantime, police organizations are begging street cops not to give up on bulletproof vests.

"We've heard anecdotally that some police executives have suggested that officers not wear them," Pasco said. "That is the height of irresponsibility. A vest that's possibly deficient is far better than no vest at all."