L.A. to Settle Lawsuit Filed by Paraplegic

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has recommended that the city pay $1.5 million in an out-of-court settlement to a 34-year-old San Fernando man who severed his spine when he jumped head-first from a bunk bed onto the cement floor of his Van Nuys Jail cell.

Gilbert Amescua, who became a paraplegic as a result of the incident, claimed that Los Angeles police negligently failed to provide him with psychiatric care and to take precautions to prevent him from injuring himself after his 1987 arrest for failing to pay traffic tickets.

The city agreed to the settlement Wednesday, six days before the case was scheduled to go to trial before U. S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima. The settlement is subject to approval by the mayor and City Council.

Assistant City Atty. Victoria G. Chaney said the city denies liability but agreed to the settlement for fear that a jury might award Amescua a larger sum.

“Juries are not always predictable. . . . Given the severity of the injuries, the potential award could be between $5 million and $10 million,” Chaney said.

The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed by attorneys Michael R. Mitchell and David L. Margulies, alleged that jail personnel deprived Amescua of his 14th Amendment due process rights to appropriate medical and psychiatric care.

According to Mitchell, Amescua was jailed on Jan. 16, 1987, after he stopped officers near his then-home in Van Nuys and informed them that he was wanted on outstanding warrants for unpaid traffic tickets.

Amescua was transferred naked to an unlit, padded cell Jan. 19 after he ripped a toilet off the wall of his cell and tried to wash non-existent blood off the cell walls with his underwear, the suit alleged.

Amescua told a jailhouse doctor who subsequently examined him that he had attempted suicide at age 16 and wanted to see a psychiatrist. The doctor noted that Amescua was depressive and should remain in the padded cell, but a jailer who did not know of the doctor’s recommendation moved Amescua to a regular cell at Amescua’s request. He was the only occupant of that cell when he jumped from the top bunk about 6 a.m., Mitchell alleged.

Chaney said Amescua was transferred to the other cell because he seemed lucid, was remorseful about his behavior and requested a cell with more amenities.

A divorced father of two who had his own auto upholstery business at the time of his arrest, Amescua received psychiatric care while he was being treated for his injuries and is now studying social work at Mission College, Mitchell said.