Family doubts coroners

Relatives of a 27-year-old Corona del Mar man who died after collapsing outside of a Newport Beach nightclub are still searching for answers — even after officials ruled that the death was accidental.

Clinton “C.J.” Hubbard’s sister, Jessica Johnson, believes her brother was involved in a fight before he was discovered bleeding and unconscious in the parking lot of the Code nightclub, 4221 Dolphin-Striker Way.

“We still do believe he was hit,” Johnson said. “We hope someone has a guilty conscience and will come forward. We don’t believe this person was trying to kill my brother. It was just a violent act; it was just the wrong place, wrong time.”

The Orange County coroner ruled this week that C.J. Hubbard died from an accidental fall after collapsing in the parking lot outside the club Thanksgiving morning. The coroner found that Hubbard died of a massive head injury that caused bleeding around his brain.

Officials with the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner on Friday said there were no signs that he was punched and that a blow precipitated his fall.

It was the impact of his head hitting the ground that killed him, officials said.

“If you read this autopsy report, someone could have hit our son with a baseball bat,” Clint Hubbard, C.J.’s father, said. “They just throw down ‘accident.’ That’s odd to me, that they have no findings or basis for calling it an accident.”

The autopsy report listed scrapes on Hubbard’s chin, nose and forehead, but no bruising.

There are conflicting eyewitness accounts of the night that C.J. Hubbard collapsed outside Code before 2 a.m. Nov. 26.

One witness told police that C.J. Hubbard was punched in the head after confronting a man who was arguing with a woman outside the restaurant. Another witness said Hubbard simply collapsed.

Hubbard was found bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth. He had a heartbeat, but wasn’t breathing when paramedics arrived on the scene.

Hubbard died at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana the next day when his family took him off of life support. His blood-alcohol level at the time of his death was 0.14%, according to a toxicology report.

Newport Beach police detectives handling the case were unavailable for comment.