City Council Faces Trial in Brutality Case : Courts: A judge rules the officials can be held liable in a $20-million suit over the 1990 police slaying of three robbers in Sunland.

A federal judge has ruled that Los Angeles City Council members must go to trial in a $20-million police brutality lawsuit stemming from the slaying of three robbers by a special police unit, and could be held personally liable for damages.

The ruling, made Monday by U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts, comes in a civil case filed on behalf of Johanna Trevino, the 2-year-old daughter of one of the slain men. Officers of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Investigations Squad shot and killed the robbers, and seriously wounded a fourth, after a Feb. 12, 1990, holdup at a McDonald’s restaurant in Sunland.

The girl’s lawsuit is identical to an earlier suit filed by the lone survivor of the shooting and other family members. They won $44,000 in damages from then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and nine SIS officers in a three-month trial this year.

In the new case, the 15 council members were named as additional defendants because they voted in April to indemnify Gates and the officers and pay the damages out of city coffers.

Trevino’s attorney, Stephen Yagman, called the council’s decision to pay the damages a “ratification of the LAPD policy of excessive force” that made council members personally liable for damages in the new suit.

The city attorney’s office sought to get the council members dismissed from the suit, arguing that as elected officials they had legislative immunity, which allows them to carry out their duties without fear of being held personally liable.

But on Monday, Letts agreed with Yagman and refused to dismiss the council members from the case. He said he would issue a written order later, but Yagman said the judge’s verbal order cleared the way for him to begin taking depositions of council members.

The decision drew criticism from Deputy City Atty. Don Vincent, who said the threat of council members having to pay legal damages out of their own pockets would have a chilling effect on city operations.

“It has always been an assumption that they had legislative immunity,” Vincent said. “If they don’t have immunity, pretty soon they won’t act on anything. They will be afraid. . . . “

He said the city would probably appeal, but declined further comment until a written decision from the judge is issued. Council members declined immediate comment, saying the matter is part of ongoing litigation.

In the first case, also filed by Yagman, the jury agreed with the contentions of the surviving robber and relatives of the dead men that SIS officers violated the robbers’ civil rights by shooting them without cause. That suit maintained that Gates was responsible because he fostered and condoned excessive force by his officers.

The jury awarded the plaintiffs $44,042. Jury members said they assessed the relatively low damages because they wanted to state that the officers acted improperly without awarding a significant amount to the families of the robbers and the one man who survived the shooting and is now in prison.

The assessment was mainly to send a message about police use of force, jury members said. They said they believed the money should come out of the pockets of the police chief and SIS officers personally, not from taxpayers.

The case is set to go to trial next March. If council members are found liable for damages, they will have to pay them personally because by law they cannot vote to indemnify themselves, both Yagman and Vincent said.

“There is no way they can get out of this except by floating a ballot asking voters to approve paying damages for them,” Yagman said.

Vincent, who is head of a unit in the city attorney’s office that defends the city in police-related lawsuits, said the city has strong grounds for an appeal because the council “is entitled to absolute legislative immunity. They can’t be held liable.”

Vincent disagreed with Yagman’s contention that the ruling is precedent-setting, although he conceded that it would be unusual if upheld on appeal. “We are a long way from there,” Vincent said.

In the past, Yagman and council members have clashed over the possible liability of city officials in the case.

Before the council agreed to use city money to pay the damages, Yagman had offered to drop the council members from the current lawsuit if they refused to indemnify Gates--which would have forced the chief to personally pay more than $20,000. However, he withdrew the offer even before the council voted to pay the damages.