Man Shot by Bell Police Settles Suit for $3.7 Million

A lawsuit brought by a Mexican man left paralyzed by a city of Bell police shooting 2 1/2 years ago has been settled for $3.7 million.

Samuel Alvarez, who must use a wheelchair for the rest of his life, said Monday he had agreed to the settlement to end litigation over a shooting at a Bell motel in which he was an unarmed bystander.

Last year, the city of Los Angeles settled a suit brought by a legal Mexican immigrant, Adelaido Altamirando, for $5.5 million. Altamirando, a Coliseum groundskeeper, was shot by Los Angeles police in a case of mistaken identity and left paralyzed from the shoulders down.

During a news conference at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles to announce the Alvarez settlement, Consul Jose Angel Pescador Osuna said he was disturbed by several recent police shootings involving injury or death to Mexican citizens.

“Maybe it’s a problem of misunderstanding, of language or culture,” Pescador said. “Maybe we need more education so that police officers come to understand differences in culture.”

Alvarez, 20, was visiting friends at the Bellaire Motel on July 1, 1989, when police arrived to investigate a pistol whipping in another room, said Gregory W. Moreno, one of Alvarez’s attorneys. Alvarez, then 17, had sold pillows and worked as a day laborer.

Alvarez was neither armed nor involved in the incident, Moreno said, but he was among four men that police ordered outside. Officers shot Alvarez twice in the leg and once in the back as he stood near another Mexican immigrant who had a gun.

Though Moreno said the officers had used “sloppy police procedures,” Bell Police Cmdr. Mike Trevis called the shooting “an unfortunate accident.” Alvarez is paralyzed from the waist down.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department conducted an investigation of the shooting at the request of Bell police.

“The results of the investigation were submitted to the (Los Angeles County) district attorney, who determined there was no criminal culpability on the part of the officers involved,” said sheriff’s spokesman Larry Lincoln.

Danilo Becerra, co-counsel for Alvarez, charged that the sheriff’s investigation was a cover-up. Lincoln refused to comment Monday.

John Bramble, chief administrative officer for the city of Bell, said the city and its insurance carriers decided to settle the case to avoid the cost of going to trial.

“He was not guilty of anything other than being in the place where a call came into the city involving the motel,” Bramble said of Alvarez. “It was an unfortunate set of circumstances.”

The thin, pale Alvarez said he had no plans other than to return to Houston, Tex., where family members took care of him after the shooting. Becerra said Alvarez, as an undocumented worker, could not qualify for programs such as Medi-Cal and has received little medical attention.

Now, however, after giving his attorneys 40% of his settlement, Alvarez will receive at least $8,000 a month for life. He is applying for legal status based on humanitarian reasons, the lawyers said.

Alvarez did not seem joyful at the turn of events. “I get the money,” he said. “But the money won’t help me move.”

Also at the news conference were relatives of Mexican citizens killed in police incidents, among them the wife and children of Emiliano Camacho. He was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responding to a family disturbance call in Cudahy in March, 1991. Lincoln said the shooting was investigated and results turned over to the district attorney, “who found no criminal culpability on the part of the officer involved.”

But the family disputed the sheriff’s version of what happened, and Moreno said he will file a lawsuit against both the department and the city of Cudahy.