Westminster Officer Cleared by Jury in Fatal Party Shooting : Courts: Family of Latino who fought with the officer sued for excessive force. Instead he is awarded damages. Police fear renewed community tensions.

A federal court jury on Tuesday exonerated a Westminster police officer who fatally shot a young Latino when the man tried to attack the officer after a neighborhood birthday party dissolved into a near riot.

The eight jurors in the civil case deliberated for three days before unanimously finding in favor of Officer Steven Phillips, who shot Frank Martinez, 18, once in the chest during a scuffle on July 15, 1988. Phillips, 34, had been sued by Martinez’s relatives for allegedly using excessive force and violating the young man’s civil rights.

The verdict angered the Martinez family and their attorneys, and raised concern among top-ranking police officials that police-community tensions could build in the Martinez’s Olive Street neighborhood.

After the shooting, the predominantly Latino neighborhood reacted angrily by accusing police of “Frankie’s murder.” Homemade signs that exclaimed, “Running from police is not a crime! Killing a teen-ager is!” were hastily taped to telephone poles along Olive and throughout the barrio.

“Any member of the Hispanic community in Orange County has to be seriously concerned about their welfare because of this verdict,” said Christopher B. Mears, co-counsel for the Martinez family, who was visibly shaken by Tuesday’s verdict. “Especially when a federal court jury can come to a conclusion that the killing of Frank Martinez did not violate the (U.S.) Constitution.”

Phillips’ attorney, Bruce Praet, hailed Tuesday’s verdict as “very significant” for law enforcement because jurors awarded punitive damages to the officer. The panel ruled that Phillips’ legal costs, estimated at $20,000, should be paid by the estate of Martinez in addition to $24 in punitive damages. The $24 is for every month the officer said he has suffered emotionally since the incident.

“The jury’s message is that police officers do not have to undergo these types of lawsuits for just doing their job,” Praet said. “The message is that people should not attack police officers or you’re going to pay if you do.”

Jurors also agreed with Phillips’ contention that he was battered by Martinez just before the shooting.

According to testimony, police had questioned Martinez’s brother Joel that night after they responded to a gang-related kidnaping in the neighborhood.

When Officer Phillips arrived, a crowd had formed on the street. Phillips testified that he saw someone running from a police officer. When he joined the pursuit, he ran up the driveway of the Martinez home and into the back yard, where Martinez and about 30 other people were attending the party for Martinez’s mother. Several officers testified that they were confronted by some members of the crowd and were kicked, punched and hit with beer bottles.

Phillips was hit over the head with one bottle, which crumpled him to the ground. While on the ground, he noticed Frank Martinez coming at him with a bottle and, according to his testimony, he shot in self-defense.

Witnesses against the officer testified, however, that Martinez did not wield any bottle and was shot for no reason.

Phillips declined to comment Tuesday, but his attorney said he was relieved by the decision, which came on his 34th birthday.

Jury foreman Larry Leis, 43, acknowledged that testimony in the case was laced with racial and gang overtones. But he said each juror considered the evidence “cautiously and objectively.”

“We tried to look at it from both sides and we analyzed it and put together what we believed was most probable as to what happened the night it occurred,” Leis said.

“Race wasn’t an issue,” said juror Tiffany Plets, 21.

Jurors said they found fault both with the behavior of Joel Martinez Jr., who refused to stop when ordered by a police officer, and the actions of another officer whom they described as overzealous and who caused the confrontation to escalate.

“I think that if people, and this means some of the police officers as well as the Martinez family members, had acted prudently, this whole thing may not have happened,” Leis said.

After the verdict, police officers were instructed by superiors not to make any comments to the media for fear they could be misconstrued by the family and the community.

The verdict left members of the Martinez family emotionally shaken. Frank Martinez’s father, Joel Sr., declined to comment. But his wife, Amanda, said she thought the jury believed the police officers simply because they wore badges.

But Joel Martinez Jr., the couple’s 24-year-old son, joined other relatives who claimed that jurors did not pay attention to evidence supporting the family’s claims that Phillips used excessive force. Young Martinez and his mother expressed anger over the way police officers had depicted their neighborhood as a “gang neighborhood.”

“That’s all we heard about was gangs, gangs, gangs. My brother was not a gang member,” Joel Jr. said.

Family members said they have not decided whether to appeal the verdict.