Man Shot by Officer Gets $8.75 Million : Police: Victim is a paraplegic after being wounded by an off-duty LAPD veteran. The award is the largest in city’s history.

A Superior Court jury awarded a record $8.75 million Friday to a former Coliseum groundskeeper who was wounded by an off-duty Los Angeles police officer in 1987 and left a paraplegic.

The award to Adelaido Altamirano, 47, of Los Angeles is the largest since 1972, when the city attorney’s office began keeping such statistics, and is believed to be the largest police-related jury award in city history.

The judgment comes at a time when City Council members have raised questions about the rising cost of police-related litigation in the aftermath of the March 3 Rodney G. King beating. City attorney records show that payouts in police lawsuits have climbed from less than $1 million in 1980 to $9.1 million last year, plus interest and fees for plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Jurors deliberated 3 1/2 days before returning a unanimous $8.75-million judgment, plus awards to Altamirano of $2,500 for violations of his civil rights, $2,500 for assault and battery, and $5,000 punitive damages against Officer Donald Hudson, who shot him.

The city attorney’s office is studying a possible appeal, a spokesman said.

During the two-week trial, Altamirano’s lawyer, R. Samuel Paz, accused the Police Department of trying to protect Hudson, a 10-year veteran now assigned to the Southwest Division.

“They purposefully distorted the facts of what happened,” Paz said after Friday’s judgment.

Police Department spokesman Lt. Fred Nixon said the department found the shooting to be “in policy” after an internal investigation.

The case focused on a crucial moment Nov. 16, 1987, when Altamirano was walking near the Coliseum, where he had tended the playing field for years.

According to Paz, Altamirano had armed himself with a 9-millimeter handgun after being mugged in the neighborhood. When another mugger approached him, he pulled the weapon and drove the would-be assailant away.

As described by Paz, Hudson--who was off duty, out of uniform and in his car--saw Altamirano holding the gun. The officer jumped out of his auto, ran at Altamirano and fired three times. A bullet pierced Altamirano’s left shoulder, traveled through his back and went out his right arm.

The lawyer said Altamirano will remain a paraplegic for the rest of his life.

According to Tom Hokinson, senior assistant of the city attorney’s civil liabilities division, two off-duty police officers in separate cars saw a running man, Altamirano with a gun, and heard a shot.

The officers called for Altamirano to stop, according to Hokinson, but he kept walking away. In all, he said, Altamirano was ordered to halt three times--in English and Spanish--before he stopped and turned around, with a gun in his hand.

“In fear of his life, the officer (Hudson) fired,” Hokinson said.

Altamirano denied aiming his gun at Hudson, insisting that he was carrying the weapon in his waistband at the time.

According to Paz, his client heard “some shuffling behind him,” and the next thing he knew he woke up in the hospital. “Mr. Altamirano never saw the officers coming,” the attorney said. “He was walking away from them, walking slowly.”

Altamirano, who lives with his mother, has incurred $136,000 in medical expenses since the shooting, and his future medical expenses are expected to be at least $236,000, Paz said.