Trial Offers Instant Replay of Skirmish at 49ers-Rams Game

The sun was warm, the beer was cold and the right football team was winning for four San Francisco 49ers fans one Sunday nearly five years ago in Anaheim Stadium.

But the afternoon turned sour, the two couples from San Jose allege, when they were roughed up without reason by six Anaheim police officers. Two of the four, who insisted that they had done nothing wrong, were arrested.

Marlene and Peter Eberle and Claudia and Robert Kiser later filed suit, alleging that their civil rights were violated when police overreacted to their ardent cheering for the 49ers. Their trial began Tuesday in U.S. District Court here.

In pretrial statements, the police officers said the Eberles interfered with their efforts to calm an explosive situation they had caused by taunting Rams fans and then resisted arrest.

$22.5 Million in Damages

At one point, the Eberles and the Kisers were demanding about $22.5 million in damages. Marlene Eberle alleged that she had been terrorized and had suffered continuing psychiatric problems since the Oct. 23, 1983, incident.

Robert Kiser, 47, testified that he, his wife and the Eberles were simply being good 49ers fans in a sea of Rams boosters, cheering the San Francisco team on to its eventual 45-35 win.

But police have said the good-natured fan rivalry took on ominous overtones after the two male 49ers fans confronted a Rams booster who had been throwing ice and debris at them from several rows back.

Several witnesses who sat nearby have supported the claim that the 49ers fans merely insisted that the Rams booster stop his “childish” behavior, Robert Kiser testified.

There was no physical contact, and the fan stopped, he said. But within five minutes, four Anaheim police officers, arrived after being called by ushers.

Kiser said that without a word of explanation, Officer Gordon McMillian grabbed him by a finger and, applying painful pressure, forced him to leave. The Kisers and the Eberles were escorted out of the stands to a nearby concourse.

When they protested innocence and suggested that officers should arrest the man who had been throwing ice, the officers got rough, the 49ers fans alleged.

Kiser said that he heard Marlene Eberle ask why she was being detained and that he then saw an officer “throw her up against the wall.”

Her husband tried to assist her and was also detained, Kiser testified.

“It’s almost like the officers were responding to a riot,” Kiser testified. “But there wasn’t any riot. They were creating a riot.”

McMillian testified that Kiser was not unruly but that he maintained the “finger hold” out of concern that a volatile situation might erupt.

Attorney James P. Collins, representing the officers, told jurors that officers watched the 49ers fans taunt the crowd before intervening.

To control the “rather nasty situation,” Collins said, the officers acted correctly--”using the force necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, and it was done in good faith and not with intent to injure.”

Both Eberles were charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, but those charges were dismissed by a judge for failure to prosecute.

Kiser testified that he was escorted out of the stadium and told not to return.