San Diego : Award Caused by Deputy Is Upheld
A state appeal court Thursday upheld the $114,800 award won at a jury trial by a San Diego criminal defense attorney who claimed a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy used excessive force on her at County Jail downtown.
A San Diego Superior Court jury awarded the money to lawyer Lucy Mesecher after a November, 1990, trial, finding she was the victim of a battery committed by the deputy. The jury ordered San Diego County to pay the judgment.
Mesecher claimed that, as she left a client at a video arraignment room at the jail, a deputy who apparently did not know she was on official business twisted her arm and pushed her to the ground. Deputy David Hawkins denied throwing her to the ground or twisting her arm in the Dec. 9, 1987, incident.
On appeal, the county claimed that the jury misunderstood the law. But the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that such a claim has no legal merit, since there was no evidence of jury misconduct or of an outside influence on the jury.
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