Council Loss of Immunity in Brutality Case Appealed

The city of Los Angeles will appeal a ruling that stripped council members of immunity from being sued or personally paying damages in a police abuse case in which they voted to pay damages against former Chief Daryl F. Gates and nine officers, the city attorney’s office told a federal judge Thursday.

Deputy City Atty. Don Vincent said the appeal stops civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman from beginning depositions of the 15 council members. However, he said, it also sets the stage for a precedent-setting ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that could erode the council’s “absolute immunity” from being held personally responsible for actions taken on behalf of the city.

The ruling was handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts in a civil case filed on behalf of Johanna Trevino, the 2-year-old daughter of one of three robbers slain by members of the Police Department’s Special Investigation Section after a 1990 robbery of a McDonald’s restaurant in Sunland.

The girl’s suit is identical to one filed two years earlier by a fourth robber, who survived the police shooting, and several members of the dead men’s families.

The plaintiffs in the first suit won $44,000 in punitive damages from Gates and nine SIS officers this year. During a three-month trial, they contended that the officers violated the robbers’ civil rights by shooting them without cause. Gates was also held liable by jurors who agreed with the suit’s claim that he fostered and condoned the officers’ use of excessive force.

Though jurors said Gates and the officers should pay the damages personally, the City Council voted in April to indemnify them and pay the damages out of a city insurance fund.

Yagman included the council members as defendants in the second suit because of that decision, arguing that by indemnifying Gates and the officers, the council was stating approval of actions the first jury found to be wrong.

Letts agreed and denied Vincent’s request that the council members be dropped from the suit because they have “legislative immunity” from being held responsible for carrying out their duties. Letts has not issued a written order yet, but Vincent said Thursday that his appeal will challenge “anything in it that questions the immunity” of council members.

He said that if the appeal is unsuccessful, the loss of immunity could have a chilling effect on council operations because its members will fear possible legal consequences.

Compensatory damages--awarded by a jury to compensate for losses established during a trial--are routinely paid by the city when the employee was acting on the job when the infraction occurred. Punitive damages, which are assessed against individuals as a punishment, must be paid by the individual unless the City Council votes to pay with city funds--as the council did with Gates and the nine officers in April.

But under state law, council members cannot vote on financial matters concerning themselves. Therefore, if members are assessed punitive damages in the Trevino case, they would not be able to vote themselves the money to pay.

The only alternative would be to put the question of who should pay before voters on a ballot.

Yagman, who said he agreed to postpone council depositions until the appeals court rules, said the city’s appeal could take as long as six months. Trial of the case had been set for next March but could be delayed because of the appeal.