Judge Lets Stand $2-Million Police Brutality Award

A judge Thursday refused to substantially reduce a $2.2-million jury award to a couple in their 70s, making it possible that the South Los Angeles residents will one day receive what attorneys say is the largest police brutality and false arrest judgment in Los Angeles history.

Superior Court Judge Norman Epstein, ruling on the city’s motion for a new trial, discounted its contention that an $1.8-million award in October to Murphy Pierson, 74, was excessive. The judge cited Pierson’s permanent injuries from police gunshots three years ago. Pierson had been standing on his porch with a shotgun, trying to scare drug dealers from his yard in a gang-plagued area at Adams Boulevard and Cochran Avenue, when police saw him with the gun and opened fire.

Epstein gave Pierson’s wife, Katie, 71, the option of having her $340,000 in damages reduced to $250,000 or going to trial again. Katie Pierson, who was in custody for six hours after officers dragged her from her home--where she had been on her knees saying the rosary--agreed to accept the lesser amount.

City lawyers acknowledge that the $2-million award is among the highest in Los Angeles history. Private lawyers who handle police brutality cases say they know of none higher.

The city has the right to appeal Epstein’s ruling. John Hernandez, the lawyer who represented the city, said an appeal was under discussion but that no decision had been made. He declined to comment further.

The Piersons’ lawyers, Eric G. Ferrer and Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., said an appeal would be cruel given the couple’s advanced ages.

The city “should go ahead and pay the money. These people are old,” Ferrer said. “The court told them the evidence was overwhelming and that’s what the jury thought.”

Cochran and Ferrer pointed out to Epstein that Murphy Pierson’s body is bent at a permanent 90-degree angle and that his back is humped as a result of the shooting, which wounded his chest, buttock and right hand. His wife, a retired hospital worker, was not physically injured but has had to become his full-time caretaker.

Katie Pierson said after the ruling that she has become a virtual prisoner in her home because she is afraid of being away from her husband of 49 years and because of the heavy drug trafficking in the neighborhood.

“My husband has a lot of physical hurt and he bears that very good,” she said. But she said the psychological pain is worse. “He’s not like he would like to be. He was always an active person. When you have to have somebody else do everything for you, you’re resentful.”

On the day of the shooting, Memorial Day, 1986, Murphy Pierson, fed up with two men who were peddling drugs from his lawn, emerged from his house with a .12-gauge shotgun.

He has said he held the weapon with the barrel pointed to the sky, and it was only when he appeared with the weapon that the men paid attention to him and left.

As he was turning to go inside, he contends, a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser stopped in front of the house. Officers Brent Jones and Jon Pearce got out of the car with their guns drawn.

Both officers have steadfastly contended that Pierson ignored repeated warnings to drop the shotgun. Pearce has said he began firing when Pierson pointed the weapon at the officer’s chest.

Pierson disputes that, saying the officers did not give him time to lower the gun to the porch before they started shooting. He says they continued firing at him after he was hit and lying on the porch begging them to stop shooting.

Pearce fired five rounds and Jones six.

A Superior Court jury Oct. 6 accepted Murphy Pierson’s version of events and compensated his wife for being taken into custody and her subsequent suffering.