officers - The Black Vault

the right hand, the left buttock and
the chest. ...
· "Th.ey hever gave him a chance
te"tm1 down the gun," said attorney
Johnnie L. Cochran, who represented
Pierson. "They continued
firing after Pierson was lying on
the porch begging them to stop.
Then they pulled his wife out of the
house in her housecoat and made
her kneel down on the front lawn
and handcuffed her and took her to
jail."
. Pierson died last year from complications
resulting from the shooting,
his wife, Katie Pierson, said:
"It was only after the shooting that ·
he started having problems," she
said. "We would have been married
50 years." ·
·In a suit stemmin·g from a 1981
incident, the city paid $1.45 million
tQ Ronnie Melgar, 20, a burglary
suspect who was shot while fleeing
police and suffered brain damage.
Police apparently mistook Melgar's
flashlight for a gun.
A police officer said he chased
Melgar on foot from a construction
site where it was suspected he was
stealing lumber, according to police
reports. The police officer said
he repeatedly ordered Melgar to
halt and fired his weapon only after
he thought the suspect was preparing
to turn and point a gun at
him. The officer's bullet hit Melgar
in the back, causing his lung to
collapse and resulting in brain
damage. Melgar's attorney, Barry
, Litt, said his client ran only after
the 'officer used a racial epithet and
· threatened to hit Melgar with a
baton.
The city also paid $625,000 into a
lifetime ann'!lity for two sons of
, RTD bus .driver Danny Smith, 34,
who was shot in 1985 by officers
who were searching for a suspect
in Smith's back yard. Smith was
unarmed, according to a summary
of the incident in city Budget and
Finance Committee reports. Sev­
.eral police officers went to Danny
Smith's back yard looking for a
man who was wanted for receiving
·st'oleri merchandise. Smith was
shot, the officers said, only after
they heard the "cocking of a weapon"
and Smith ignored orders to
freeze. Smith was shot in the back.
Will. Glennon, a legal analyst for
the California Trial Lawyers Assn.,
said the large increases in awards
and settlements reported in Los
Angeles were not consistent with
the trend elsewhere in the state.
'"Mostly jury awards have been
flat/' he said. "If [police-related
'lawsuits] are showing an increase,
then that's pretty frightening. . . .
It's probably only the tip of the
.iceberg because police cases are
·.very tough. The cops usually have
all the. [juror] sympathies on their
side." ·
·· -As large as payouts ·were last
· year, city attorneys said that it will
.become increasingly difficult to
1981 1982 1983 1984 198~ 1986 1987 1988 1989 1~90
Note: Figure!) do not include plaintiffs' attorneys' fees paid by the city.
·Source: City Attorney.
~- •• ·-: •• • ........ ~: ... ;. ........ :-t~._ .. : .. •• : ........ ~"'"'"'' ... " ............... " ... "·'' ...... ~.·
ANDERS RAMBERG I Los Angeles 1imes
. ~
The foUowing are total settlements a'nd jury q.wards' paid last year by
the 10 most populous U.S. cities to resolve police-related lawsuits:
CITY POPULATION CASES PAYOUTS
New York 7,322,564 267 $1 0.6-million
Los Angeles 3,485,398 32 $11.3 million
Chicago 2,783,726 170 *$5.9 million
Houston 1,639,553 12 Under $100,000
Philadelphia 1,585,577 70 ** $3.3 million
San Diego 1,110,549 730 ***$5.6 million
Detroit 1,027,974 200 · $20million
Dallas 1,006,877 3 $3.92 million
Phoenix 983,403 4 **$48,202
San Antonio 935,933 28 Under $100,000
SWORN
OFFICERS
26,000
. 8,300
12,000
4,078
6,200
1,850
4,300
2,792
:.2,046
·1,559
• Figures include some cases on appeal, but exclude fees to plaintiffs' attorneys.
•• Excludes interest and fees paid to plaintiffs' attorneys.
••• Figures include suits over police-related traffic accidents, Including a $3.2·milllon award.
NOTE: Most figures are for the 1990 calendar year. Those for New York and Philadelphia are comp1led by •
fiscal year. F1gures tor San Antonio cover a 27 -month period. . ,
. ~- cO_mplled ~Ti_rnes editorial '!!S!l'!rch_er Cegli~ ~mussel) • ___ • • • __ . " , .. • ----:·
lice. .
Noting that the publicity surstarter's
pistol.
The Budget and Finance Com~rounding
·the King beating will mittee recommended council ap-.
tend to influence jurors, Assistant· proval of the $35,000 settlement.
Dist. 'Atty. Richard James said he saying: ."A jury possibly might
plans to ask a judge to continue one . decide that the plaintiff's version or'
of his current police cases. "I don't the facts were true and that the
think a police officer is going to get officers shot a man who did nat
a fair trial now," hesaid.
The city attorney's office frehold
a starter pistol, or that there
was negligence in the tactical ap~
quently settles civil suits before proach which led to the shooting.
trial to avoid the possibility of large Such a determination would resuLt
jury awards and costly litigation. in a verdict far in .excess of t:q¢
Most cases that go to trial, how- propo~ed settlement amount." . ,,
ever, are won by the city. Out of 78 Attorney Cochran, who has hari~
cases tried last year, the city won died excessive force cases for three
61, officials said. Another 85 cases decades, sajd "the weight of all th,~·
were settled without trial, some- cases over the years has sensitized
times to avoid costly litigation or .people and raised questions in their
the possibility 'of an unfavorable minds about whether police always
jury verdict. tell the truth." . ~:
One of them was a suit over the
1985 police shooting death of Fran-
Attorney Stephen Yagman, wh?
also handles many police-abuse
cisco Gutierrez. According to a City
Council report, a police officer who
cases, said he doubts that there has
been a significant change in the
shot Gutierrez thought his starter's
Eistol was a real gun. But Gutierpositive
attitudes that jurors hav~
. toward the nolice "It is ver'IL..3lf'.r.~ -- -- -
•'