Jury Award to Fired Policeman Ruled Excessive

A federal judge has ruled that a $2.9-million jury award to a fired Los Angeles police sergeant was “grossly excessive” and should be reduced to $1 million or the former officer will have to face the prospect of a new trial.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gadbois issued the order in the case to Roger M. Gibson, a veteran police officer who sued Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and six other officers, alleging that his rights were trampled in the investigation of his alleged role in a 1982 Hollywood Division burglary and sex scandal.

In his order, issued Tuesday, Gadbois said the $2.9-million award “is grossly excessive and could not have been produced by calm and dispassionate deliberation and consideration of all the evidence.”

Gibson’s lawyer, Gregory Petersen, said he had not had an opportunity to study the order, so he could not say if Gibson would accept it.

“I’ll have to determine if it has any impact on his pension rights,” he said. “If there’s no impact and it looks like he’s going to get his pension, it may be appropriate.”

The $2.9-million award, returned by a jury last March 2, was accepted, Petersen said, because it included $900,000 worth of waived pension rights.

Deputy City Atty. David Hotchkiss, who defended the police officials in the case, said “the city’s motion for a new trial was met with favorable consideration by the court and a recognition by the court that the award of the jury was well beyond the realm of reason.”

If Gibson accepts the award, Hotchkiss added, “then the city has to decide whether we still wish to appeal. If he rejects it, then we will be given a new trial.”

Aside from the reduction in actual damages, Gadbois also ordered that $55,000 in punitive damages the jury awarded to Gibson be reduced to $5,000.

Gibson, 47, of Canyon Country, a 16-year police veteran who is now a carpenter, was one of 12 officers who resigned or were fired in the scandal. Only two officers were convicted of crimes. No others have sued.

Gibson testified that he was the victim of a witch hunt in the Hollywood Division in 1982 after two officers were caught in the act of burglary.

Gibson was fired when a police Board of Rights determined that he had made false statements to Internal Affairs Division investigators in denying that he was present at an alleged Hollywood Hills sex party and was insubordinate when he refused to permit investigators looking for a stolen auto battery to search his house.

The Board of Rights, an administrative panel, found Gibson not guilty of stealing the battery, and the district attorney’s office never charged him with any crime.