Pregnant Woman Struck by Officer Wins Damages

In an unusual case involving the rights of unborn children, a Los Angeles federal court jury Monday awarded $415,229 in damages to a woman who was punched in the stomach by a Riverside police officer when she was three months pregnant.

The jury did not award damages to the woman’s baby daughter, now 18 months old, despite U.S. District Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez’s tentative ruling that a 3-month-old fetus has constitutional rights and may be entitled to damages.

“It’s legally significant because the judge essentially has ruled that constitutional rights begin at the time of conception, insofar as civil rights are concerned,” said attorney Stephen Yagman, who represented Brenda Cornwell, 26, of Riverside, and her daughter, Misti.

“The judge basically ruled that a fetus has constitutional rights, so long as the fetus is born alive,” the attorney said.

Yagman, a well-known civil rights lawyer, said the case is also significant because the $327,000 punitive damage award against five Riverside police officers is believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case. The remaining $88,229 constituted general damages.

John Porter, who represented the city of Riverside in the case that stemmed from a confrontation at a raucous beer party in 1986, said the judge was never required to make a final ruling on the fetus issue because the jury did not award damages to the child.

“The Supreme Court, in Roe vs. Wade (the high court’s ruling legalizing early term abortions), has held that a fetus does not have standing to sue for damages under the Constitution,” Porter said. “But the whole approach we took was that we do not need to decide this issue if there was no injury to the child.”

The incident began when two undercover Riverside officers arrived at the house next door to the Cornwells’ to investigate charges that beer was being served to minors.

Yagman said the plainclothes officers did not identify themselves.

Scuffle in Yard

As the officers scuffled with one of the party-goers in the Cornwells’ yard, Cornwell, unaware that they were police, ordered them to leave and called her husband for help while she went to a neighbor’s house to seek additional assistance.

Her husband, who was on parole after serving a prison term for burglary, came out of the house brandishing what officers believed was a sawed-off shotgun. It was actually a BB gun, which is classified as a toy under California law.

When Cornwell returned, she testified, more officers had responded and she saw several physically subduing her husband and could see men with guns drawn and pointed at her two small children inside her home.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, my kids!’ ” Cornwell testified. “I was going after my kids. They were asleep in the house by themselves. I thought they would be really frightened.”

Pushed Against Wall

As she ran toward the house, one of the officers pushed her back up against a wall. She testified that he punched her in the stomach, potentially injuring her unborn child.

The officer, Richard Bradley, testified that he never punched Cornwell.

When Cornwell claimed that she had been hit, she was taken to a hospital, where she said police forced her to allow an officer to photograph her naked belly with her pubic hair exposed. The Police Department has claimed that the photos were necessary to preserve evidence in the event that any criminal or civil charges were filed.

Cornwell’s suit sought damages for false arrest, excessive force and invasion of privacy. Damages were also sought on behalf of the unborn baby for use of excessive force.

Worried Constantly

Though there was no evidence that Misti suffered any mental or physical impairment as a result of the incident, her mother testified that she had a very difficult pregnancy and worried constantly whether the child she carried would be normal.

Claims of injury to unborn children are routinely handled by courts in California in such familiar areas as medical malpractice and auto accidents. But lawyers for both sides said the case was the first to claim violations of the civil rights of a fetus.

Cornwell, sobbing quietly after the verdict was announced, said of the jury’s decision, “I don’t think it’s going to do one bit of good.

“I spent a year after this incident trying to make my kids understand that cops are not bad people,” she said. “The idea of a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old being held at gunpoint in their own living room. It’s kind of shattered our whole family’s idea of what the police are supposed to be. I think it’s going to wear on them the rest of their lives.”