Liability of Police for Damages Cut : Court of Appeals: Local governments can pay on behalf of law enforcement personnel if malice is not involved, the judges decide.

In a precedent-setting decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that local governments can pay punitive damages on behalf of law enforcement officers who have violated the civil rights of citizens.

The decision, which arose from a 1987 incident in which a pregnant woman was punched and photographed under duress by Riverside police, was termed “outrageous” by attorney Stephen Yagman of Santa Monica, who sued on the woman’s behalf.

The appellate ruling “puts police officers in a position where they can do anything because they know they won’t have to pay for it,” Yagman said, adding that he intends to ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider the case with a larger panel of judges.

In May of 1988, a federal court jury in Los Angeles returned a verdict against five Riverside police officers stemming from the incident.

Brenda Cornwell had claimed that she was roughed up by undercover policemen who failed to identify themselves when she went to her front lawn to complain to neighbors about a noisy party.

Jurors awarded Cornwell $88,000 in compensatory damages and $327,000 in punitive damages, but U.S. District Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, who presided over the trial, later reduced the punitive damages to $45,000.

Riverside city officials decided to pay the judgment but Cornwell refused to accept the $45,000 in punitive damages. She then appealed Fernandez’s decision.

The 9th Circuit decision Thursday was described as a “major breakthrough” by John M. Porter, a Riverside attorney who represented the city.

“It’s tough enough to be a cop without worrying about whether you’re going to have some of the damages (in a case like this) come out of your own pocket,” Porter said.

“This decision does not guarantee that officers will always be indemnified but it does guarantee that that option is available” to cities that want to use it, Porter added.

Testimony at the 1988 trial showed that undercover officers had gone to Cornwell’s residence to investigate complaints of a noisy party. The woman, thinking they might be part of the unruly party-goers, came outside, and sharp words were exchanged.

A short time later, testimony showed, Officer Richard Bradley punched Cornwell, who was three months pregnant, in the stomach. Officers Carmen Andrade and Jackie Bell took her into custody. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was photographed against her will by Officer Gary Crawford. Sgt. Benjamin Reiser was the supervisor in charge of the operation.

For many years, California law has provided that a city can pay compensatory damages for the wrongful acts of its employees, but the Legislature broadened that law in 1985.

The new statute provides that public agencies, other than the state, are authorized to pay punitive damages for their employees if it is found that they acted within the course of their employment, in good faith and in the apparent best interests of the agency involved.

Yagman argued that Riverside should not pay the punitive damages, despite the state statute, because of language in a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that a city was immune from punitive damages under federal laws that allow citizens to file police brutality cases.

However, the Supreme Court noted that taxpayers do not have to foot the bill if there is malice involved.

Thursday’s 9th Circuit decision was written by Judge John T. Noonan Jr., who wrote that the Supreme Court’s decision does not prohibit cities from paying punitive damages when the city finds that its police officers acted without malice.