Pasadena Jail-Death Suit Is Settled Out of Court

The family of a man who died after allegedly being beaten by two city jailers has been awarded $250,000 in an out-of-court settlement that also grants a total of $75,000 to four other men who claim they were assaulted by the same jailers in Pasadena City Jail.

The settlement, awarded by the Board of City Directors, covers a wrongful death suit brought by the family of Ronald L. DeFond and the battery of suits by the four others who claim they were beaten by jailers Lee Roy Hudson and Dennis S. Bryant.

Hudson and Bryant, both civilian employees, resigned from the Police Department last March.

Attorney Carol Watson, who represents all of the plaintiffs, said DeFond, 51, was arrested for public drunkenness outside an Old Town bar on Sept. 12, 1983. He was booked into city jail and 10 hours later was rushed to Huntington Memorial Hospital after jailers Hudson and Bryant found the man having a “seizure” in his cell, Watson said. At the hospital, DeFond lapsed into a coma. He died on Oct. 1.

A coroner’s autopsy ruled that DeFond’s death was accidental, caused when he fell on his head.

The four other men, all but one of whom were arrested on intoxication charges at different times between 1981 and 1983, claimed that Hudson and Bryant used excessive force in dealing with them after they were booked into city jail. Watson said the jailers kicked, punched, and applied chokeholds to the prisoners after arguments with them.

Jeff Nelson, a private attorney retained to represent the city, said the out-of-court settlement was a “pragmatic decision” and “certainly not an admission of liability.”

“The city, of course,” Nelson said, “would certainly deny that anyone was beaten to death in their jail.”

But the incidents have raised serious questions for at least one city official about conduct by jail employees.

Director Rick Cole, who has asked for a special investigation of the circumstances surrounding the suits, said the he and fellow board members decided to settle out of court because “it was the cheapest way out for us.”

But, Cole said, “We will fully investigate the circumstances in all these cases to be sure that we have fulfilled not only our legal obligations, but our moral obligations as well, and to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

Nelson refused to discuss the specific allegations of brutality made against the city because a second wrongful death suit involving the two jailers has yet to be settled and is scheduled for trial Tuesday.

That suit, also filed by Watson, involves the death of David G. Huebner, who was booked into city jail one week after the DeFond incident. Arrested for public drunkenness, Huebner, like DeFond, was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital when he was discovered in his cell with multiple head injuries, Watson said.

Huebner died four days later. A coroner’s autopsy ruled that his death was caused by an accidental fall.

According to Watson, both DeFond and Huebner were admitted to the hospital with massive bruises and head injuries, wounds they did not have at the time of their arrests.

Nelson, while declining to discuss the specifics of either case, said an independent investigations by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s special investigation division determined that the two jailers were innocent of any wrongdoing in either incident.

“The D.A.’s office wrote a report in December that completely exonerated these two guys,” Nelson said. “The Sheriff’s Department and the coroner found the deaths to be accidental.”