Damages Go to Kin of O.C. Man Killed by Officer

A federal court jury concluded Wednesday that a Westminster police officer violated the civil rights of an 18-year-old man whom he fatally shot more than four years ago and awarded the victim’s family $187,500 in damages.

The family of Frank Martinez gasped and broke into tears in court as the jury’s unanimous decision was read.

“I feel that we can start to go on with our lives now that our son’s name has been cleared,” said Joel Martinez Sr., his face tear-stained, his voice and hands shaking. “I can’t believe that the fight to clear his name has taken us four years and that it’s now over.”

The award is the second six-figure damage assessment against an Orange County police department in less than a month. On Nov. 7, a Superior Court judge ordered the City of Orange to pay $250,000 to the family of a man shot and killed by a police officer during a domestic dispute.

In that case, a jury in Santa Ana jury determined that Officer Jeffrey Mundt used excessive force when he shot and killed 27-year-old Ramon Ibarra while responding to the disturbance at Ibarra’s home.

Frank Martinez, the victim in the Westminster shooting, was shot once in the chest on July 15, 1988, by Officer Steve Phillips. Police were called to the Martinez home in Westminster that day when a fight broke out in the back yard during a birthday party.

Angry party-goers turned on the officers, struck one of them with a chair and kicked Phillips to the ground.

Police said Phillips was on his back and fired a single shot at Martinez as the teen-ager charged toward him with a beer bottle raised over his head. Other witnesses, however, contended that Martinez had no weapon and was not attacking Phillips when he was shot.

This was the second civil-rights lawsuit filed by the family against the City of Westminster and its Police Department. In 1990, another federal court jury determined that Phillips acted in self-defense during the shooting and ordered the family to pay attorneys’ fees.

But Judge J. Spencer Letts set aside that verdict and granted a new trial after the Martinez family successfully claimed that racial prejudice tainted the jurors’ decision.

Wednesday, Bruce D. Praet, who represented Phillips and the city, said he was “surprised” by the verdict and “will definitely” file an appeal. Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith said the City Council will rely on Praet’s recommendation.

“It’s remarkable how one jury two years ago could award damages to the officer . . . and then this jury, four years after the incident, comes back differently,” Praet said. At the time of the shooting, Praet added, Phillips “was trying to save his own life and the life of other officers.”

Julian W. Bailey and Christopher B. Mears, attorneys for the Martinez family, said, however, that officers at the scene strong-armed party-goers and misused their authority.

“The whole family has suffered simply because the police came into the neighborhood with an attitude and treated (people there) with something less than the dignity (to) which they’re entitled,” Bailey said.

In ruling for Martinez, the four-man, four-woman jury said it questioned inconsistent statements by Officer Phillips. In the initial interview with investigators, Phillips did not mention that Martinez charged toward him with a bottle. Later, he claimed that Martinez was about to attack him.

Also, Phillips had known that back-up officers were on their way, jurors said. But instead of waiting for help, he and two other officers tried to quell the fighting.

“He knew help was coming; he just panicked and acted too fast,” said juror Joe Morones, 60, of Riverside.

But while jurors determined that Phillips violated Martinez’s civil rights and caused the family emotional distress with his action, they also found that the officer was not wholly responsible for the tragic incident. Martinez, jurors said, should have been aware of the risk involved when he joined the melee.

If the jury had concluded that the victim had no responsibility for his own death, the family would have been awarded $247,500, Bailey and Mears said. Martinez’s sister, brother and parents will divide the $187,500 award among them.

“If you’re in a fight with (police), it creates a very volatile situation and that’s what we have here . . . a volatile situation,” said jury foreman Dave R. Bartlett, 50, of Huntington Beach. There was some “negligence” on the part of Martinez and his brother when they got “involved in a fight with police,” Bartlett added.

Joel Martinez Sr. said he was not surprised by the finding because “it’s hard to go up against a big organization like the Police Department and you come out with no liability.”

Immediately after the shooting, animosity between police and the Latino community bordering Westminster’s Sigler Park grew to the point that a U.S. Justice Department mediator conducted several weeks of meetings in the area to defuse the tension. The conflict escalated after a county grand jury and the district attorney’s office found that Phillips shot Martinez in self-defense.

Times staff writer Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this story.