Judge OKs Suit Against 2 Police Officers

While the district attorney’s office has yet to decide whether to prosecute two Hawthorne police officers in the shooting death of a schizophrenic man last year, a federal judge has ruled that the victim’s parents may proceed with a $10-million civil suit against the officers.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. ruled last week that the parents have grounds to sue Hawthorne police officers Joseph Luper and his partner, Paul Neitzert, in the death of 20-year-old Terence Williams, who was killed by police July 1, 1990, just hours after he escaped from a psychiatric hospital.

At the same time, the judge dismissed several defendants from the lawsuit, including Hawthorne Police Chief Stephen Port, the city of Hawthorne and two other police officers. He also dismissed the family’s allegations that the officers conspired to deprive Williams of his civil rights.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has been investigating the shooting for a year, but has yet to determine whether criminal charges will be filed against the officers, Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan S. Yochelson said.

Williams’ mother, Loretta Brown, and his father, Naymon Williams, filed the civil suit in August, 1990, accusing the officers of a “racially motivated bias” against Williams, who was black. The suit also alleges that the officers used excessive force against Williams in retaliation for injuries they suffered while trying to capture him and return him to the hospital.

“It was retribution and street justice meted out to a 20-year-old, unarmed mentally disturbed person,” said Benjamin Schonbrun, an attorney for Williams’ parents.

But the officers’ attorney, Terry Green, contends that Luper, who fired the fatal shots, was justified in using deadly force because Williams had lunged at him while his gun was drawn. “He was very violent,” Green said.

Green had sought to have the suit dismissed, saying that Williams posed “an immediate and deadly threat to people in the area,” and that the officers “did everything right.”

A pretrial conference is set for Aug. 12.