Officer Who Killed Suspect Target of Four Lawsuits : Complaints Accused Him of Excessive Force and False Arrest

A police officer who fatally shot a drug suspect in the man’s Southeast San Diego apartment Saturday night has been the target of four lawsuits alleging excessive force and false arrest.

The suits against Timothy A. Fay contend he has been involved in cases in which a handcuffed man was hogtied and his head stepped on, a man’s knee was torn and his shoulder wrenched and a woman’s hair was pulled out and her throat slammed onto the hood of a police car.

Two of the suits were settled by the city for a total of more than $20,000.

Thomas F. Homann, a longtime defense attorney, said Wednesday after being told of the cases against Fay: “I’m surprised there’s not more. . . . I have written at least one or probably more letters of complaints to the Police Department about him.”

Homann, who has not been involved in any of the four lawsuits, said he was prompted to write after hearing of numerous complaints about Fay.

‘Very Pleasant Person’

Fay could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Capt. Dick Toneck, chief spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, said Fay is a veteran officer who has no history of a hot temper.

“He’s always been a very pleasant person to talk to,” he said. “He’s always been kind of a mild-mannered person to speak with, and polite. I’ve never heard him raise his voice. He comes across as being very quiet.”

Toneck declined to address specific lawsuits and complaints about Fay because of privacy rights for peace officers.

“It would be a personnel matter we couldn’t discuss anyhow,” he said. “A guy’s got his rights, and I’m not going to trample on them.”

He said four lawsuits may not be unusual, since Fay has worked many years as a narcotics officer and made countless arrests.

“Who knows?” he said. “Is a guy guilty just because he’s had four lawsuits against him?”

Internal Investigation

Fay has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation into the Saturday-night shooting.

According to police officials, Fay shot Stanley P. Buchanan after the drug suspect brandished a flashlight at Fay and two policewomen. The officers were arresting Buchanan, an ex-convict, on suspicion of drug possession when Fay, 37, drew his service revolver and fired, striking the 32-year-old man six times.

Assistant Police Chief Norm Stamper said Wednesday that internal investigators hope to complete their review of the shooting “within a day or two” and send the case to the district attorney’s office. A decision will then be made on whether criminal charges should be filed.

“We’ve talked to the police about that case,” said Steve Casey, a spokesman for the district attorney. “But we haven’t got into the nitty-gritty of it yet.”

According to Police Department policies, officers cannot shoot a person unless someone’s life is in danger or the person poses a threat of “great bodily harm” to someone.

Police sources said the question in the Fay shooting is whether Buchanan, armed with the flashlight, truly could have done great bodily harm to any of the three officers.

Prompted Concern

Sources also questioned why Fay, described as about 230 pounds and about 6-foot-4, did not physically disarm Buchanan rather than shoot him.

Fay, who joined the department in 1978, has been assigned to its Walking Enforcement Campaign Against Narcotics. In March, he joined the newly assembled Special Enforcement Division, which is aimed at combatting drug and gang activity in the city.

But the shooting, along with another police shooting of a 14-year-old boy who was a passenger in a stolen car, has prompted concern among black leaders that police and community efforts to fight drugs and gangs in Southeast San Diego may now be seriously tarnished.

The major lawsuit against Fay was filed in 1979, when James E. Miller contended that he was falsely arrested for rape, then assaulted at the police station.

That lawsuit, filed against the city, Fay and a large group of officers, drew a judgment in favor of the defendants. But a new trial in 1985 resulted in a judgment of $15,000, plus $745 in court costs, against the city.

It was unclear from court records exactly what Fay’s involvement in that case was, beyond being one of the officers who participated in the mistaken arrest. Miller’s attorney, John G. Phillips, said Wednesday that he could not recall the extent of his client’s injuries.

More Emotional Than Physical

In the other case that resulted in a settlement, attorney William G. Richardson said his client, Rodney L. Fowler, suffered wrist injuries after being hogtied and assaulted. Richardson said the injuries could have been much greater.

“My client, like Fay, was big, and that’s why he didn’t have too much of an injury,” Richardson said. “It was more emotional damage than anything else. My client is a big man and is probably something comparable to a linebacker in pro football. That’s why most of the injuries were emotional and psychological.

“It was embarrassing the way it went down. And the judge didn’t like it, either.

According to the lawsuit, Fowler was working as a cashier in a Linda Vista liquor store in 1983 when his brother was arrested in the parking lot. Fowler stepped outside to see what was going on, and he was taken into custody for resisting arrest.

The lawsuit said Fowler was “handcuffed and offering no resistance” when “Officer Fay applied a sleeper hold” to Fowler’s neck. His hands and feet were hogtied.

“While so tied and handcuffed, Officer Fay, without probable cause, then placed his knee on (Fowler’s) head and forced (Fowler’s) head on the asphalt for approximately 10 minutes,” according to the suit.

Later Acquitted

Richardson said Fowler was later acquitted of resisting arrest. He said he then filed the lawsuit, which resulted in an arbitration settlement of $5,000 against the city.

“The matter was settled pretty fast,” Richardson said.

The remaining two lawsuits are pending in San Diego Superior Court.

Laurie Hunter, in a lawsuit filed in December, 1987, says she was arrested by Fay and Officer Cindy Geraggi for being drunk in public. Her suit says that, while she was being placed under arrest, the officers struck her and “crushed her upper thorax onto the hood of the police car, pulled amounts of hair from her head and inflicted various other forms of physical abuse upon her.”

The suit also accuses Fay of “raising his voice and uttering epithets and threats in an unreasonable and unlawful manner calculated to bring the San Diego Police Department into extreme disrepute.”

In the most recent lawsuit, Douglas M. Fletcher contended last month that he was taken into custody for resisting arrest after Fletcher “reacted in self-defense towards an unprovoked attack by Officer Tim A. Fay.”

The suit says Fletcher suffered permanent damage to his knee, as well as a severe shoulder separation.