The Region : City to Pay Ex-Police Trainee $35,000

The Los Angeles City Council voted to pay $35,000 to settle a workers compensation claim brought by former police trainee Josephine A. Curtin, 38, who said she suffered “injury to her psyche” after being subjected to a prohibited bar-arm chokehold during a self-defense class at the Police Academy in 1983. The city previously paid Curtin $15,000 to settle a separate claim alleging damage to her vocal cords. The hold was banned by the department in 1982 after it was linked to several deaths. Police officials said if the hold was then used in training, it was an error. Curtin graduated from the academy and went to work as a probationary officer, but was terminated in March, 1984, a month before completion of probation.