City Panel OKs $3.1 Million for Dead Man’s Kin : Award: A man suffering from acute sickle cell anemia was assaulted, robbed, arrested and mistaken for a drug addict in the waning minutes of his life 11 years ago.

In the last half-hour of his life, Jerry Eugene Wright Jr. was assaulted, robbed, arrested, handcuffed, thrown to the ground and, possibly, kicked.

Instead of seeing if he needed their help, Los Angeles paramedics mistook him for a drug addict, and police officers were going to take him to jail for making a ruckus on a Crenshaw-area street in the middle of the night.

In fact, Wright, 20, was suffering from an acute attack of sickle cell anemia, probably brought on by an assault and robbery in front of his home.

Now, more than 11 years later, his parents are on the verge of collecting a $3.1-million award in a lawsuit against Los Angeles alleging that emergency personnel did nothing to help their son. No one even took his pulse, evidence showed, as he slipped into a coma and died in the dirt in front of his home on the 3900 block of Coco Avenue.

On Tuesday, the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee approved the award and sent the matter to the full council, which is expected to endorse it in the coming weeks. “We have no choice in the matter,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the committee.

After more than a decade of litigation, the California Supreme Court has refused to hear the city’s appeal, according to Assistant City Atty. Philip Shiner.

Wright’s parents declined to discuss the case Tuesday, but the attorneys who have pressed the suit for the last 10 years said the incident and the city’s tenacious litigation of it raises troubling questions about race relations and police behavior.

“It’s a just a sad commentary on what it’s like to grow up and live in certain areas of the city,” said Janet Levine, who represented Wright’s family along with her partner, Alvin Michaelson.

Wright was “treated like a dog,” she said. “He was just treated terribly. . . . Ultimately, the police were not held accountable.”

Fire Department officials said Tuesday the department has radically tightened its procedures and it is highly unlikely that such an incident could happen today.

The tragedy happened May 19, 1979, as Wright returned home after working the night shift at a bank. He was attacked and robbed on the street, according to neighbors who testified at a three-week trial in 1985.

Testimony showed that police who responded to neighbors’ phone calls decided that Wright was under the influence of drugs and arrested him. Witnesses also testified that one officer kicked Wright and threw him to the ground. Paramedics failed to check his blood pressure or pulse, the witnesses said.

Wright’s parents sued the police and fire departments in 1980, winning a $2.1-million jury verdict in Superior Court five years later.

However, the trial judge, Julius A. Leetham, threw out the verdict, saying that he disagreed with the jury.

Wright’s lawyers lost, then won appeals before the same panel of the state Court of Appeal. The appellate court found the paramedics negligent, but refused to reinstate the verdict against the police.

The California Supreme Court recently refused to hear the city’s appeal. Interest in the ensuing years has raised the amount of the award to $3.1 million.

Fire Capt. Alan R. Cowen, commander of the Bureau of Emergency Services, said Tuesday that paramedic procedures have been vastly improved since 1979. Paramedics now operate under strict protocols that set out procedures that must be followed in all emergency calls, he said.

For instance, he said, paramedics must check pulse and respiration on every call and must contact a base hospital by radio for instructions under many circumstances.

While paramedics are not trained to diagnose specific illnesses, he said, the signs of acute sickle cell anemia would be enough to alert the paramedics to transport the victim to a hospital or call for instructions.

“In 1979,” he said, “it was a lot more loose than it is today.”