ANTELOPE VALLEY : Man Injured 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, breaking three of his ribs, during a routine traffic stop in the Antelope Valley.

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 also awarded him $150,000 in punitive damages. Attorney Anthony J. Ellrod, who represented the county, said that the deputy testified that once out of his car, Buttram “slipped and fell,” although Foster “didn’t actually see it happen.”