Local News in Brief : Brutality Claim Rejected

The Hawthorne City Council has rejected a police brutality claim filed on behalf of two Leuzinger High School students who said they were victims of assault and false arrest by officers Dennis Barberic and David Mains.

The claim states that Barberic and Mains assaulted Jonas E. Woodring, 15, and Richard C. Mendez, 16, at a high school football game. The teen-agers said in the claim that the two policemen questioned them about their skull rings and accused them of drug use and gang membership. According to the claim, one of the boys was held at gunpoint by the police. Woodring’s mother also claims to have been attacked by the officers during the confrontation.

Police said they arrested the teen-agers on suspicion of assault and referred both to a juvenile counseling program, which they refused to attend.

Attorney George V. Denny III, who filed the $250,000 claim against the city in November and later sought a reduced settlement of about $20,000, was unavailable for comment Thursday.

When the claim was filed, Denny said that if the council rejected it he would file suit on behalf of the teen-agers.

The Police Department experienced a series of police brutality claims in the 1980s, one of which was recently settled by the city for $260,000. But in the past several years few serious incidents have been reported, according to City Manager R. Kenneth Jue.