Appeal Court Reinstates Jury Verdict for Paraplegic

A police officer who shot a former Costa Mesa businessman, leaving him a paraplegic, was ordered to pay an additional $535,000 to the shooting victim, an appellate court ruled Tuesday.

The City of Hawthorne, which employed Officer Michael Moran, already has paid Jon McClure, 43, the $1.66 million McClure was awarded by an Orange County Superior Court judge. But on Tuesday the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana reinstated the original jury verdict of $2.2 million.

The award stemmed from an incident on Sept. 17, 1977, when Moran drove into an auto repair shop run by McClure on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa. The two men argued, and Moran, using his Police Department service revolver, which the city required him to carry, shot McClure twice.

McClure sued Moran for assault and for violating his civil rights and sued the city for hiring the officer in the first place. An Orange County Superior Court jury returned a $2.2-million verdict against the City of Hawthorne and Moran. Jurors also held that Moran was responsible for 80% of the injury and McClure for 20%.

The judge reduced the jury verdict to $1.66 million. But the appellate court ruled that such a reduction was improper in cases of civil rights violations, where the injured party should collect the total amount of damages.

Moran was twice suspended by Hawthorne and eventually charged with drug possession and firearms violations.

McClure now lives in Arizona. His lawyer, L. Eugene Hallsted, said Tuesday that McClure will file another lawsuit, if necessary, to collect.