Panel OKs $1.2 Million to Settle Brutality Suits

The Los Angeles County Claims Board approved settlement Monday of four separate brutality lawsuits totaling $1.2 million against the Sheriff’s Department, including a case involving the death of a Valinda man. All but one of the settlements must receive final approval from the Board of Supervisors, which usually accepts the board’s recommendations.

The settlements come at a time when the city Police Department is caught in a maelstrom over the videotaped beating of an Altadena man, which has spawned criticism of the $10 million the city paid last year to settle police misconduct suits.

Claims board member Lloyd Halstead said it was coincidental that the four county cases appeared jointly on the Claims Board agenda.

The biggest settlement Monday--$470,000--involved the family of Benjamin Valencia, who was fatally shot Oct. 14, 1987, by sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic dispute call.

Also recommend by the Claims Board was a $400,000 settlement to David Pereyra, 21, and his father, Antonio.

The younger Pereyra alleged that he was assaulted by sheriff’s deputies twice in 1984, once after he was stopped for drunk driving and the other when he and his father were assaulted at the family home in east Whittier.

The board recommended payment of $325,000 to John Franklin Weaver, who required abdominal surgery after he allegedly was beaten by deputies at the Men’s Central Jail in January, 1990.

The fourth settlement--which does not require the supervisors’ approval because it is less than $100,000--involves payment of $50,000 to Damon Fulton, who was shot at by an off-duty deputy in the Van Nuys area in February, 1990.