Price of Justice for Blind Man Debated : LAPD: Indigent, 72, was roughed up by police. Lawyers agreed on $36,000 settlement, but City Council is considering an increase.

When Raymond Hewitt wandered into a drug bust on a downtown Skid Row street in March of 1991--two days before the Rodney G. King beating--he could neither see nor hear the two officers who were shouting at him to back away.

Instead, the 72-year-old legally blind and deaf indigent kept walking toward the officers who had detained three drug suspects at the corner of 5th and Towne streets.

According to a report by the city attorney’s office, Officer Edward Waschak shoved him against his patrol car while Officer Ronald Bair struck him with his fist. The injured man was then handcuffed and taken into custody for battery on a police officer, but the charge was not pursued.

Two weeks later, a concerned social worker took Hewitt to Queen of Angels Hospital, where he was treated for six fractured ribs and complete blindness in one of his eyes. Hewitt, then living in a Skid Row hotel, filed a $300,000 brutality lawsuit against the city and the Police Department.

On Tuesday, in an extraordinary move, the Los Angeles City Council met in closed session to debate whether Hewitt deserves more than the $36,000 that his lawyer and Assistant City Atty. Robert Seeman agreed the elderly man should be paid in a settlement.

The council, which failed to reach a decision, is expected to take it up again today.

“It’s a tragic case and I’d like to see him get more money,” Councilman Joel Wachs said after Tuesday’s session. “But to avoid this sort of thing in the future we need sensitivity training for all our civil servants.”

Gregory Yates, the Beverly Hills attorney representing Hewitt, said that although the amount was low, he had no choice but to agree to the proposed settlement that was offered one day before the case was scheduled for trial in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 18.

“The city attorney said unless I put my client on the stand he would move for dismissal of the case,” Yates said. “Can you imagine putting Raymond on the stand? A doctor asked him to raise his hand and it took 20 minutes of motioning and writing in huge block letters to get him to do it.”

Beyond that, Yates said, there was another critical problem. The only witnesses were the three drug suspects police were questioning at the time--and they had been released at the scene without the officers writing down their names.

Seeman of the city attorney’s office could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Hewitt has been awaiting word on the outcome of the case that will determine whether he can remain in the care of the Los Angeles convalescent home he entered a year ago.

“It’s a bad life for me,” Hewitt muttered to a visitor in his room at the home. “I don’t feel too good, see? My back is still pretty sore.”

“I’m waiting for my money,” added Hewitt, who walks with a stoop. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Matilda Nelson, a social worker who carried Hewitt home from the police station after his encounter with the officers, said “what happened to him is horrible.”

“The police beat him to a pulp,” said Nelson, who has helped Hewitt obtain food and clothing on Skid Row since 1988. “He was afraid to see a doctor or call police. But he finally agreed to go to a clinic because his lungs were filled with fluid, he could barely walk and he was coughing and coughing.”

Nelson, who is employed by a nonprofit organization called Single Room Occupancy Inc., also said she “had a heck of a time trying to find him a lawyer after the Rodney King case broke.”

“All the lawyers I talked to wanted a videotape or forget it!” Nelson said. “Heck, we didn’t even have witnesses.”

Eventually, she contacted King’s attorney, Steven Lerman, who referred her to Yates.

Yates, who said he is entitled to 40% of the settlement plus costs, plans to only charge Hewitt a “minimal fee” and about $15,000 in out-of-pocket expenses related to the lawsuit.

“But the only doctor who can establish a link between Hewitt’s injuries and the police is trying to charge him $5,500,” Yates said. “He may eventually end up getting virtually nothing.”

Officer Bair has been reprimanded by a police disciplinary board for failing to render medical assistance to Hewitt, an LAPD spokesman said. Waschak was not charged in the incident.

“The police got a tap on the hand,” Nelson said. “Hewitt got beat to the point he can no longer live by himself. It’s a shame.”