Downey : City Won’t Appeal Verdict

The City of Downey has decided not to further appeal a federal court decision awarding a woman $245,000 in damages and legal fees because her civil rights were violated during a 1979 arrest and strip-search by city police, City Atty. Carl Newton said.

The city agreed last week to pay Kimberly Renee Paul, now a 22-year-old Army private at Ft. Hood, Tex., an additional $55,500 in attorneys’ fees and interest on the award, said lawyer Virginia Pesola, who also represented the city in the case.

A U.S. District Court jury in February 1985 decided in favor of Paul, who was 14 years old and lying asleep in a car when Downey detectives awakened and arrested her at gunpoint for investigation of armed robbery. A jail matron strip- searched Paul, who was released within an hour of her arrest.

The decision was upheld by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in April.

Paul’s attorney, Yvonne M. Renfrew, contended that Paul was arrested because she is black. Police said that detectives were investigating the holdup of a local record store and that Paul fit the description of a possible accomplice.