Gates Dismissed as Defendant in Zinzun Suit

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates was dismissed as a defendant Thursday in a lawsuit filed by a longtime political activist who claims his civil rights were violated and his campaign for office devastated by the release of information from Los Angeles police files.

“The case against Chief Gates is exceptionally weak and is insufficient to go to the jury,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Berg ruled.

The suit, aimed principally at the city and the Police Department’s second in command, Assistant Chief Robert Vernon, is scheduled to go to the jury next week.

Gates was pleased with the decision, police spokesman Cmdr. Robert Gil said.

The suit was filed by former Black Panther Party leader Michael Zinzun, who claims Vernon supplied information from Anti-Terrorist Division files that was used by political critics to discredit Zinzun’s 1989 campaign for the Pasadena Board of City Directors, a position similar to a city council seat.

Gates testified during the trial that he orally reprimanded Vernon for using a department computer to gather information about Zinzun. He described the action as inappropriate, but Gates denied that the information came from confidential anti-terrorist files.

Gates said Vernon retrieved public information supplied by Lexis/Nexis, a private computer service that specializes in providing electronic versions of newspaper articles and legal documents.

“He acted in good faith,” Gates said. “His purpose was to make sure that all the material he dealt with was from public access.”

But Zinzun’s lawyer, Dan Stormer, said that because the news reports were obtained and released during his client’s campaign for office, Zinzun was labeled a terrorist.

“It devastated his campaign,” Stormer said.

Deputy City Atty. Mary House denied that the information supplied by Vernon labeled Zinzun as a terrorist. She contended that The Times and other newspapers misrepresented the public documents, which are readily available in libraries.