A man accused of severely beating a fellow 82-year-old Elks member last year at the Redondo Beach lodge in an attack caught on video will not fight his criminal charges.
At a hearing Tuesday, Aug. 19, in Torrance Superior Court, Lamont Dominic Steele pleaded no contest to elder abuse and assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury for repeatedly punching Joseph Lordeon of Redondo Beach and knocking him unconscious.
Additionally, under his no-contest plea — which is tantamount to a guilty plea but cannot be used against a defendant in civil court — Steele admitted to a great bodily injury sentencing enhancement allegation. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 7, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Steele is married to former Redondo Elks Lodge Exalted Ruler Nashana Steele, who resigned from her position with the lodge after the May 5, 2024, attack. Lamont Steele has been banned from the beachside club for life. Reached by phone Thursday, Lamont Steele declined to comment.
Lordeon is suing the Steeles and the Redondo Elks Lodge for battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, premises liability, negligence and elder abuse.
“Joe Lordeon was brutally assaulted in an unprovoked attack,” said former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who is assisting Lordeon with the case. “Justice is being served in the criminal court.”
Security camera footage of the encounter, obtained by the Southern California News Group, purportedly shows Lamont Steele searching the lodge for the MAGA hat-wearing Lordeon and then repeatedly striking him in the lobby.
Officials with the national Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, headquartered in Chicago, have declined to discuss the alleged assault because it is a criminal matter.
Founded in 1868, the BPOE has nearly 1 million members who gather at 2,000 lodges across the U.S. and abroad. The Elks provide charitable services aimed at building stronger communities, sponsoring college scholarships, youth basketball teams, drug awareness programs and similar initiatives.
Lordeon told the Southern California News Group his ordeal began about 4:30 p.m. on Cinco de Mayo when he visited the Elks Lodge on the eastern edge of the oceanfront Veterans Park to meet some friends.
On his way out about 15 minutes later, he said a lodge member invited him to have some food at a private party attended by about 45 people in another bar at the north end of the lodge.
Lordeon was handed a plate, helped himself to some salad from a buffet table and started to walk away. However, Nashana Steele blocked Lordeon and ordered him to leave the lodge because she was upset that he was wearing a hat supporting President Donald Trump, the lawsuit states. Lordeon can be seen in the video having what appears to be a heated discussion with Nashana Steele.
Lordeon left the dining area, but not the lodge, and sat on a sofa in the lobby to eat his food.
Nashana Steele sought out Lamont Steele, who was on a patio at the lodge, to kick Lordeon out, describing him to her husband as wearing a Trump hat, the suit alleges.
However, a seven-page, heavily redacted Redondo Beach police report offers a conflicting motive for the attack, stating someone told Lamont Steele a man had assaulted his wife.
The security camera video shows Lamont Steele and others purportedly scouring the lodge for the man and then finding him in the lobby.
Lamont Steele told police he asked the man if he had touched his wife, to which the man replied “(expletive) you.” This upset him further, prompting him to allegedly punch the man once with a closed fist, according to the report obtained by the Southern California News Group.
Lordeon has denied touching Nashana Steele.
Lordeon, who sustained a large facial wound and rib injuries, said Elks member Karen Shonka, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s cold-case homicide detective, removed bits of salad from his mouth after the attack so he wouldn’t choke and called 911 for an ambulance.
A Redondo Beach police officer who viewed the video of the incident said in the report that the assault was unprovoked, adding that Lordeon was punched three times, picked up from the couch and pushed to the floor. The attacker then stood over Lordeon, slapped him with an open hand, left the lodge and drove home, the officer wrote.
More than a year later, Lordeon said the assault still gives him nightmares. “This was a frightening and traumatic experience,” he said Thursday. “I still wake up in the middle of the night, screaming and thinking that Mr. Steele is attacking me.”