Six Newport Beach Police Officers Used ‘Excessive Force,’ Judge Rules

Six Newport Beach police officers used excessive force when they insisted that a Costa Mesa man arrested for drunk driving submit to a blood test and physically restrained him at a hospital, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Steven Nick Bohunis filed a $10-million civil rights suit against the Newport Beach Police Department a few weeks after his arrest on Feb. 15, 1985. Monday, U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. ruled that “the Newport Beach defendants used excessive force on the plaintiff.”

Hatter also decided there should be a trial to determine how much Bohunis should receive in damages but did not set a date.

“This is the first time a judge has decided as a matter of law that the force used (by Newport Beach police) was excessive,” said Stephen Yagman, the Los Angeles attorney representing Bohunis in the federal case. Yagman, who has represented several clients in civil-rights suits against the Newport Beach Police Department, said that juries, not judges, usually decide the excessive force issue.

Newport Beach Police Lt. Gary Petersen said Monday that the decision surprised him, but added that he could not comment further since he had just heard about the ruling and did not know what had been presented in court.

Improvement Sought

The ruling comes at a time when Police Chief Arb Campbell is trying to improve his department’s reputation of being overly aggressive.

Earlier this year, the National League of Cities found in a management audit that the overzealous style of the department, which has 139 sworn officers, should be re-examined in light of the number of lawsuits and complaints being filed. The audit was requested by Newport Beach officials.

More than 100 suits and claims alleging excessive force, false arrest or civil rights violations have been filed against the department in the last eight years.

While 17 such claims were filed in 1985, only one claim of excessive force has been filed against the department so far this year, Petersen said. Campbell was out sick Monday and could not be reached for comment.

The 28-year-old Bohunis, who lived in Costa Mesa at the time of the arrest, formerly worked as a property manager for the Irvine Co. He was driving a 1978 Chevrolet Camaro at high speeds on Jamboree Road when he swerved to avoid another vehicle, lost control of his car and skidded down a 70-foot embankment, according to a Newport Beach police report at the time.

Bohunis, described in the report as “semi-coherent,” refused to take an alcohol breath test. At the police station, Bohunis was “uncooperative” and had to be rendered unconscious twice by officers using choke holds, according to the police report.

After being booked at the station, he was driven to Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach. Six officers were needed to restrain Bohunis while a nurse took a sample of his blood. According to court records, the nurse agreed to perform the test because hospital policy required that employees draw blood at the order of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach police officers, even when the arrested person resisted.

Yagman said the blood test revealed that Bohunis’ blood-alcohol level was 0.22%--far above the 0.10% level at which a driver is presumed to be under the influence.

In May, 1985, Harbor Municipal Judge Russell A. Bostrom granted Bohunis’ motion to throw out the blood test as evidence in his drunk-driving case because it was obtained by means of excessive force, Yagman said.

Face ‘Black and Blue’

Ron Norman, Bohunis’ attorney in the drunk-driving case, said he saw photographs of Bohunis taken by police. He said Bohunis’ face was “black and blue” but he wasn’t sure whether that was from the car accident or his treatment after his arrest.

Bohunis could not be reached for comment.

A Hoag Hospital spokeswoman confirmed that the hospital entered into an out-of-court settlement with Bohunis in April, 1986, but had no further comment on the case.

Yagman said the hospital’s insurance company paid $10,000.

He discounted recent efforts by the Newport Beach Police Department to improve its image.

“Cleaning up your image as a rough police force means instructing your officers not to use excessive force and punishing them for doing it,” Yagman said.

Mark Rader, the attorney representing the City of Newport Beach in federal court, did not return phone calls from The Times.