Jury to Decide Suit Against L.A. in McDonald’s Heist

A Glendale Superior Court judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil suit filed by the ex-night manager of a McDonald’s, who alleges Los Angeles police deliberately allowed his restaurant to be robbed.

Robbin Cox, who worked at a McDonald’s in Sunland, sued the city of Los Angeles, former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and officers from the controversial Special Investigations Section over a robbery at the restaurant Feb. 12, 1990.

Judge Joseph R. Kalin said a jury should decide whether the city and the officers are liable for not arresting the robbers--under surveillance by SIS officers--before they broke into the restaurant.

SIS is a special police unit created to follow and catch career criminals while in the act or immediately after committing crimes. The unit has drawn criticism that its members used excessive force, often killing suspects.

In March, a federal jury found Gates and nine SIS officers liable for killing three of the robbers. The fourth robber survived gunshot wounds, and he and the families of the dead men filed a civil suit alleging that the officers violated the robbers’ civil rights.

Both suits stem from a surveillance operation in which 19 SIS members followed four men suspected in a string of robberies. They trailed the men from Venice to Sunland and watched as they broke into the closed McDonald’s and robbed Cox.

After the robbers entered their getaway car, the officers moved in. The officers testified that they opened fire, firing 35 shots from shotguns and handguns, because the robbers pointed guns at them. It was later discovered that the robbers had only unloaded pellet guns.