Long Beach : Jury Awards $33,000 in Police Wrongful Death Suit
A Long Beach Superior Court jury has awarded $33,000 to the family of a mentally disturbed man who died of a heart attack after being struck by a Long Beach police officer in the rear seat of police cruiser.
The jury found that Officer Robert Billingham was at fault in the wrongful death suit brought by the family of Arnold Funkhouser. The driver of the car, Officer Michael Masai, was absolved in the March, 1987, death.
Funkhouser, 37, was found to have died from a heart attack triggered by a blow to the head. Thomas Barham, an attorney for the Funkhouser family, said that Billingham struck Funkhouser after the handcuffed mental patient spat at him.
In addition to compensatory damages, the jury awarded $500 in punitive damages out of a belief that Billingham acted with “willful, callous indifference” in abridging Funkhouser’s constitutional rights.
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