Man Whose Ribs Were Broken by Deputy Is Awarded $200,000

A federal court jury has awarded a 74-year-old Palmdale man $200,000 after finding that a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy roughed him up during a routine traffic stop in the Antelope Valley, breaking three of his ribs.

Boom-Boom Buttram, a retired musician, had asked for $8 million, charging that Deputy Robert K. Foster had violated his civil rights during the Dec. 8, 1988, incident at Sierra Highway and Avenue R-4.

In a verdict returned Friday in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, a six-member jury awarded Buttram $50,000 to compensate him for his injuries and $150,000 in punitive damages.

Buttram’s attorney, Scott F. Craig, said Buttram testified that after he emerged from his car, Foster, without provocation, threw him over the hood of the patrol car.

“The blow broke three ribs on his right side,” said Craig, “and then Foster hit my client over the head with his baton, injuring his scalp.”

Attorney Anthony J. Ellrod, who represented the county, said that Foster stopped Buttram because he was driving erratically.

Ellrod said the deputy testified that once out of his car, Buttram “slipped and fell,” although Foster “didn’t actually see it happen.”

Ellrod added that in court, Foster and Buttram “pretty much disagreed on everything about the incident, from how he was driving before being stopped to what happened after he was pulled over.”

He said Foster did not give Buttram tests for drunk driving after concluding that his erratic driving was “due to poor eyesight or old age.”

Ellrod said that he will file a motion for a new trial within 10 days, but declined to disclose the grounds.