Damage Awards Against San Bernardino Deputies Slashed

Two members of the so-called “Victorville Five” were told by a Los Angeles federal judge Thursday that they can accept a reduced judgment against San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies accused of beating them or opt for a new trial on the question of damages.

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima declared in a written ruling that a total of $840,000 in damages awarded to Victor Serrano, 26, and Auro Ruiz, 34, was “excessive and contrary to the weight of the evidence.”

Tashima reduced Serrano’s compensatory and punitive damages from $300,000 to $88,000 and cut the damages awarded Ruiz from $540,000 to $206,000. The judge upheld a $116,000 damage award to Serrano’s 50-year-old father, Efren.

Damages totaling $956,000 were awarded to the three men in January by federal court jurors who watched a videotaped encounter between sheriff’s deputies and the Mexican nationals in June, 1988. The videotape was made by a next-door neighbor.

Jurors ruled that the deputies also had violated the constitutional rights of two other plaintiffs--Efren Serrano’s 29-year-old son, Jose, and Javier Ruelas, another friend who was involved in the altercation, but the two were not awarded damages.

The jury found that deputies “acted in good faith” and were “entitled to qualified immunity.” Deputies had responded to complaints of noise coming from Jose Serrano’s house during an all-night party.

The case became a cause celebre for Latino activists in the high desert community of Victorville. They charged that the encounter demonstrated a pattern of racially motivated acts against minorities by members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

The four-minute videotape--introduced as evidence at the trial--appeared to show uniformed officers using fists and batons on the plaintiffs, who seemed to offer little resistance.

Deputies involved in the scuffle maintained that the use of force was justified because one man pushed an officer and then grabbed for the guns of two deputies.

In Thursday’s ruling, Tashima denied the request of Deputies Mark Swagger and John Gocke and Sgt. Alan T. Miller for a new trial.

The judge earlier dismissed the case against Sheriff Floyd Tidwell and San Bernardino County.