$175,000 Settlement Voted for 6 Inmates in Jail Beating Case : Brutality suit: The black prisoners said that they were injured by deputies and subjected to racial taunts. County claims panel says excessive force may have been used.

The Los Angeles County Claims Board on Monday approved a $175,000 settlement with six black inmates who claimed in a lawsuit that they had been beaten by sheriff’s deputies at the Hall of Justice jail and subjected to racial taunts.

The settlement, which will be considered next week by the Board of Supervisors, was adopted by the three-person claims panel, whose members said deputies at the downtown jail may have used excessive force against the inmates during two incidents on June 3, 1986.

Several deputies and a number of inmates were injured during a fight that morning and in a series of inmate searches later in the day.

The fight began when Deputy Kevin Forcier ordered inmate Bill (Ronald) Rushing off the telephone as other inmates in his jail module were leaving for breakfast. The confrontation quickly escalated into a fight after Forcier yelled racial slurs at Rushing and slammed him against iron bars when he failed to end the call promptly, according to the inmate.

As the two men fought, other deputies began beating Rushing, the lawsuit said. The deputies then turned on inmate Sammy E. Carlyle and another inmate in the jail module, the prisoners claimed. Another inmate, plaintiff Michael Jackson, also said he was taken from his cell and roughed up by deputies.

Later that day, several other deputies angered by the morning fracas launched a “search and destroy” mission against about two dozen inmates--pulling them from their cells, beating and terrorizing them and scattering their belongings, according to the lawsuit.

Carlyle, who was the most seriously hurt in the melee, remains in a wheelchair from what his attorney said were injuries suffered when deputies hit him in the lower back and groin with a metal flashlight.

“This was an absolute outrageous and despicable thing they did,” said Carlyle’s attorney, Richard Eiden, who called the settlement a significant admission by the county that deputies had overstepped their authority.

“I don’t think it’s every day that they pay out this kind of money for a beating. In that sense, it’s a victory,” Eiden said.

The incident is one of several over the last three years in which inmates have accused deputies at county-run jails of racial harassment and brutality.

Two sheriff’s deputies were fired last year for allegedly burning a cross in a Central Jail module where members of a black street gang were housed. Five white jailers were also reassigned last year for allegedly employing undue force against black gang inmates.

In voting for the settlement on Monday, Claims Board Chairwoman Nancy Singer said the agreement made economic sense.

Reasons for settlement, she said, “would be the fact there may have been excessive force (used); there may have been some serious injuries.”

She noted that under federal law defendants must pay attorney fees if plaintiffs prevail in a civil rights lawsuit.

Singer and other county officials said they could not recall any other county case that involved brutality allegations against deputies in the County Jail system.

Originally, 13 black inmates and one Latino had sued the county, Sheriff Sherman Block and 25 deputies, claiming their civil rights were violated. Three deputies were later dismissed from the case and eight plaintiffs dropped out.

Carlyle and Rushing were tried and acquitted on misdemeanor assault charges stemming from the 1986 incidents. A similar charge against Jackson was dismissed before trial. The three other plaintiffs were Kevin M. Dunbar, Gerald Smith and David Rhodes.

The inmates contend in their lawsuit that there is “a custom, pattern and practice of racial discrimination, brutality and lying” by deputies at the Hall of Justice jail, where 1,800 inmates are held awaiting trial or finishing sentences.

The lawsuit said that the Sheriff’s Department was aware that Deputies Forcier and Paul Orrin, in particular, had “vicious and racist propensities,” but took no steps to retrain the officers.

Orrin pleaded no contest in 1988 to auto theft and insurance fraud in a scheme to illegally ship cars to Mexico for sale, using the connections of a jail inmate. He has left the force.

Forcier, who has denied using racial epithets or excessive force against inmates, now works at the Norwalk station. He could not be reached for comment.