Long Beach Settles Police Brutality Suit for $650,000 : Violence: A driver was struck in the head after a traffic stop. Another case involving the city’s officers resulted in a $6.75-million judgment last month.

A Walnut man who accused Long Beach police of brutally beating him during a traffic stop four years ago has settled his lawsuit against the city for $650,000, officials said Friday.

Galen Ball, 23, said in a lawsuit that Long Beach officers beat him with batons and a flashlight after stopping him on Pacific Coast Highway on July 16, 1988, for allegedly speeding and driving erratically. Ball needed more than 50 stitches on his head, according to his attorney, Garo Mardirossian.

“They could have killed Galen easily,” Mardirossian said.

This is the second time in the last month that the city has been faced with paying a large sum in a police brutality case. On July 24, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded the largest liability judgment ever made against the city to a Long Beach landlord who was accidentally shot by a police officer. The landlord, Vanmalibhai Galal, and his wife, Valiben, were awarded $6.75 million.

In Ball’s case, a trial was scheduled to begin this month if no settlement was reached.

The Long Beach officers said that they stopped Ball because he was speeding and driving erratically and that he used profanity while resisting arrest, Deputy City Atty. Robert E. Shannon said. He was charged with resisting arrest. But Mardirossian argued that Ball is a religious man who does not use profanity.

“He walks around with a Bible in his hand,” Mardirossian said. “As they were beating him, he was praying: ‘Jesus save me.’ ”

Ball and a friend, Mark Brown, had just left a prayer meeting celebrating the release of a friend’s mother from the hospital when police stopped them, Mardirossian said.

The arresting officers were Keith Gregrow, Darren Hall, Robert Luna and Rick Delfin, according to attorneys for both sides. At least eight other officers were called and many of them also used excessive force, Mardirossian said.

As a result of the beating, Ball has not been able to work in his family’s roofing business and suffers from headaches and other ailments, Mardirossian said.

Shannon said that Long Beach officials are not acknowledging wrongdoing by settling the case. Shannon said the officers denied purposely beating Ball on the head. “He got (the deep cuts) during the course of the altercation,” Shannon said.