Local News in Brief : Suit Against Officers
Two teen-agers who claim they were assaulted and falsely arrested at a high school football game last fall have filed a lawsuit against the city of Hawthorne and four of its police officers.
Leuzinger High School students Jonas E. Woodring and Richard C. Mendez claim they were attacked by the police when they attended a football game at Hawthorne High School.
Woodring and Mendez were “manhandled” and kicked in the ankles by police, the lawsuit charges. Woodring’s sister, mother and father, who also are plaintiffs in the suit, suffered emotional distress as they saw the boy being assaulted, the suit says. The suit demands at least $100,000 in damages.
Named as defendants are Police Officers Dennis Barberic, David Mains, Charles Leonard, City Manager R. Kenneth Jue, Police Chief Kenneth Stonebraker and the five members of the City Council. A fourth officer was not named.
The city previously rejected a claim by the two families.
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