1 Deputy in Brutality Suit Is Fired; 12 Stay on Duty

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has fired one deputy among the 13 named in an excessive brutality lawsuit filed by three Temple City men.

No other disciplinary action is planned in the case, in which the three men have accepted a $925,000 settlement, officials said. The settlement must be approved by the County Board of Supervisors.

Michael Thomas, 34, a 5 1/2-year veteran, has been relieved of duty, officials said. Thomas, who was assigned to the Temple sheriff’s station, could not be reached.

He has appealed, but no date has been set for a Civil Service hearing, said Chief Roy Brown, who oversees eight stations including Temple City.

The lawsuit, filed in 1990, accuses Thomas and 12 other deputies of beating the men after a September, 1989, party, arresting and booking them for no valid reason, and without getting medical help for them.

Thomas was accused of kneeing one of the men, Fred Scott Mace, 27, in the groin during the altercation. The suit said Mace had to have a testicle removed as a result. A second man, Russel Trice, 27, was beaten by four deputies as he lay face-down on a bed and sustained nerve damage to his back and legs, the suit said.

The third plaintiff was Mace’s father, Leigh Mace, 61, who received two fractured ribs and a broken toe.

The suit says Thomas and another deputy entered an apartment building after receiving a complaint about a noisy party. They encountered the younger Mace, who had been drinking, according to E. Thomas Barham, an attorney for the three men who were beaten.

A verbal altercation arose between Mace and the deputies, the suit alleges, after which the other deputy ordered Thomas to “go get him!” Later, the two called for the other deputies as backup.

As part of the proposed settlement, Trice would receive back surgery at a county hospital at county expense. The supervisors have not set a date for consideration of the settlement.

Capt. Richard Walls, who is in charge of the Temple sheriff’s station, said Thomas is the only deputy being disciplined in connection with the incident. He refused to say whether Thomas had been disciplined in the past, citing the department’s policy of confidentiality on such matters.

Barham said more deputies should have been fired.

“Michael Thomas is merely the sacrificial lamb, the scapegoat,” Barham said.

Several other allegations of misconduct in the Sheriff’s Department involve Temple station deputies. The department is auditing the station to see if there is a lack of supervision or pattern of mismanagement, Brown said.

Last month, Temple station Deputy Lloyd Shoemaker was charged with sexually assaulting three women after pulling them over for fabricated traffic violations; he is on leave.

In another case, three deputies were accused of stealing credit cards from elderly motorists.