officers - The Black Vault

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-emotfonaT recovery and financial
health-to settle the case rather
[ than endure a long and expensive
trial. But what constitutes a fair
settlement remains a subject of
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1 debate.
:: Tuesday's offer was approved by
r a 9-3 vote, sources said, with three
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council members absent. The
I· council spent about an hour behind -
closed doors calmly discussing the
implications of the racially charged
case and comparing other costly
liability judgments against the city.
. During the meeting, the city at­
, torney's office said a survey of
. private attorneys suggested that a
brutality case ending in injuries such
·as King's normally would bring a
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'jury award of $500,000 to $750,000 ..
But given the attention surrounding
• the King beating, the council
·'thought it would be appropriate to
1 essentially triple that amount.
:· "I defy anybody to tell me that,
given the circumstances, that's rtot
a generous offer," said Yaroslav-
1 sky, who voted with the majority.
"We're trying to do what's right."
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t ·council President John Ferrar0
~went one step further, saying that
,·King's case probably would have
!I resulted in a lower amount, "but
because of the· preminence of the
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case, we felt we should offer more."
Ferraro added that since reports
tsurfaced in June that King was
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eking a ·settlemen-t of $5 million to
million, "I've had a number of
ople say we should go to trial and
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that he shouldn't be pai!} anything."
But Councilwoman Rita Walters,
who joined Councilmen Mark Ridley-Thomas
and Mike Hernandez
in opposing the offer, described the
proposed settlement as an affront.
"I don't feel it adequately compensated
Mr. King for the horror
he has experienced, for the pain
and the suffering," Walters said. "I
am personally disappointed."
Ridley-Thomas said he was less
troubled by the amount of the offer
than the haste with which he
believed it was reached. He said
attorneys first unveiled the payment
plan in a verbal presentation
to the council during Tuesday's
closed-door session.
"This matter is too significant to
make a decision of this sort without
at least .giving it more thought,"
Ridley-Thomas said. "My concern
is to be quite thoughtful about the
message we are sending."
Lerman said he will not attempt
to further negotiate a settlement
with the city. Rather, he said,
he plans to take his civil rights
lawsuit to trial in U.S. District Court
after the conclusion of the federal
criminal trial against the four officers
accused in the March, 1991,
King beating. The criminal trial is
scheduled to begin next February.
As for his client, Lerman and his
associates said King reacted with
"disbelief and disappointment" at
the city's proposal. Lerman explained
the city's offer in a meeting
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with King in his Beverly Hills law
office Tuesday afternoon, and they
decided to reject it after little
discussion.
"He thought the City Council • i
had really wanted to settle his
case," Lerman said of King. "So he
is surprised and somewhat disappointed.
But he remains resolved to
make the legal system work."
Although such negotiations are
usually kept secret, Tuesday's of-
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fer was made public under a feder- '
al rule that requires settlement
proposals to be filed in U.S. District
Court if the case is pending there.
Shortly after . the beating, King
filed a lawsuit against the city, and
his attorney suggested .that he
should be awarded $1 million for
each of the 56 baton swings leveled
at the Altadena motorist.
Under the city's offer, $250,000
would have been paid directly to
King and $1 million would have
gone into an investment fund expected
to yield about $75,000 a
year, said Deputy City Atty. Don I
Vincent, supervisor of the police
litigation unit.
The payments would have been J
guaranteed for 20 years, assuring
King or his estate of at least $1.75
million, regardless of how long he
lives, Vincent said. But the beating I
victim could have collected as much
as $3.3 million ifhe reaches 68-the .
age to which city officials say he is ~~
statistically expected to live. • 1
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Times staff writer Jesse Katz contributed
to this story. ·