County, Anaheim to Pay Stroke Victim $360,000

A stroke victim who was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness will receive $360,000 from the City of Anaheim and Orange County in return for dropping his false-imprisonment lawsuit under a settlement reached Thursday in Superior Court.

Robert Dillard, who became a paraplegic because of complications after the stroke, said the settlement was fair but “definitely not generous.” He was held in jail four days without medical treatment after his arrest on the night of his stroke in 1983, according to his lawyer.

“I felt a lot of people had done me wrong,” said Dillard. “Who was on drugs? Me or the guy who booked me?” Dillard, who said he had never been arrested before the incident and hasn’t had a drink in 10 years, is now confined to a wheelchair. He lives with his 6-year-old son, Jonathan, in Anaheim.

Medical insurance coverage through his employer, Honeywell-Ericcson Development Co., paid for the bulk of his medical bills. Dillard continues to receive disability benefits through the firm.

In court documents, Dillard said he had attended a luncheon retirement party for a co-worker at a restaurant on Oct. 25, 1983. He apparently had a headache at the party and went outside for some fresh air.

At 11 p.m. two Anaheim police officers found him in a parking lot one block away, slumped over the outside of an automobile. He was taken into custody and booked for being under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Co-workers and a friend became alarmed that evening when Dillard failed to turn up. A friend called Anaheim police and asked if they had any information. But because Dillard’s name had been misspelled on Anaheim police paper work and he had inexplicably been identified on paper as a white male, rather than a black male, the friend was told he was not in custody, according to Fred R. Hunter, his lawyer.

Hunter said notations in jail records show that Dillard was deemed too intoxicated to be brought before a judge 20 hours after his arrest. Hunter said his client was still suffering from the stroke and was incoherent at the time.

Hunter, who was elected to the Anaheim City Council last month, said Dillard is the last client he represents who is involved in litigation with the city.

Diagnosed as Stroke

After four days in custody, Dillard was brought before a judge, who ordered him taken to a hospital, Hunter said. Physicians at Western Medical Center determined Dillard had suffered a stroke, and he was hospitalized for one month.

Dillard, suffering from memory loss, then returned to his parents’ home in Chicago.

Within the next nine months, he experienced a growing sensation of weakness.

“I starting standing up and knocking over chairs,” Dillard recalled Thursday. “I couldn’t figure it out.”

“They put me on physical therapy, but I just kept getting weaker and weaker,” Dillard said.

More consultations with more doctors and more tests followed.

“Every time they did a scan, they said it looked the same as it did before,” he said. “I’d say: ‘Then why am I getting worse?’ ”

By July of 1984, Dillard had lost most of the use of his arms and legs and was being given round-the-clock care.

Vitamin Deficiency

Doctors eventually discovered he was suffering from a severe Vitamin B-12 deficiency, or pernicious anemia.

Lawyers for both the county and Anaheim, contending that doctors should have recognized Dillard’s condition and treated it more quickly, did not admit any liability in agreeing to the settlement.

Dillard, 40, said he has overcome his frustration and anger and hopes that with further rehabilitation he may be able to return to work.

Jonathan “didn’t react to me any differently” after his hospitalization, Dillard said. “He likes to ride around in my wheelchair. He thinks it’s real neat. And so do his friends.”

Dillard and his wife, from whom he is now divorced, separated about the time of his arrest. He won custody of Jonathan.

“I stopped worrying about myself and started focusing on my son,” Dillard said.