Jury Award Against Police in Oceanside : Lawsuit: Jury awards $300,000 to couple after finding officers violated their rights when they arrested them after protest about police helicopter.

A jury in Vista awarded an Oceanside couple $300,000 in damages Thursday after finding that police officers two years ago had maliciously conspired to violate their federal civil rights, unlawfully entered their home and illegally arrested them.

In handing down their verdict, the jury of six men and six women also found that Oceanside Police Department’s policies and practices deprived James Jensen and his wife Mililani Smythe of their civil rights when 11 officers burst into their home.

Jensen had been a vocal opponent of the Police Department’s now-discontinued helicopter program, complaining of the aircraft’s noise when patrolling the neighborhood.

The lawsuit stems from a Sept. 8, 1990, incident when a police helicopter began hovering about 800 feet over Jensen’s home. The 37-year-old architect retrieved a flashlight, aimed it at the copter and made an obscene gesture at the pilot.

Minutes later, about a dozen officers converged on the home, hogtying Jensen and carrying him away while arresting Smythe for obstruction of justice.

Both were later cleared by the district attorney’s office, which refused to press charges.

Jurors found that the police had overreacted to a minor and completely legal action by a member of the public. However, they rejected Jensen’s and Smythe’s claims that police intentionally buzzed the house to provoke Jensen and had planned in advance to arrest him if he did anything about it.

“It’s a hell of a verdict,” said Jensen, who added that he has no plans to leave his Oceanside home. “It’s really scary to know that what you feared is true really is true.”

A tearful Smythe said she felt vindicated by the verdict, which were unanimous or near-unanimous on all 29 of the findings against the Police Department.

“I thought that they would be fair, but I didn’t think they would be this unanimous,” said the 34-year-old graphic designer. “I love the fact that they polled the jury, just to hear them say: ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ ”

Individual officers who were defendants in the lawsuit declined to comment, and city officials said it was unclear what steps they will take next.

“The jury’s verdict has come back, but the judgment is not yet final,” said City Atty. Dan Hentschke, who left the question of an appeal up in the air. “At this point, we have to analyze the case to see where we go.”

Former Oceanside Police Chief Lee Drummond, who presided over the department during the Jensen incident, was stunned when told of the verdict, citing an internal affairs report conducted shortly after the incident that cleared all officers of any wrongdoing.

“There has to be something there that was overlooked,” Drummond said. “I don’t know what that could be.”

Drummond, who now is the city manager of Sanger, said the helicopter program had been politicized by a member of the city council who had interfered with the management of the police department which had “a trickle-down effect” to individual officers.

Drummond, however, stopped short of saying that city politics had made officers over-sensitive to criticisms of the helicopter program.

In reaching their verdict, jurors said they felt that this was an isolated incident within an otherwise well-run police outfit, but that the department’s procedures allowed it to occur.

“The Police Department is outstanding and I fully support them, both now and before,” said juror Kenneth Bustamante, but the department needs to re-examine their procedures.

The jury, Bustamante said, found there was a conspiracy under the legal definition of the term, but that “there was not this major plot where everybody (in the department) got together and made this happen.”

“They were not trying to provoke him,” Bustamante said. “But they were all aware of him and so when he did something, they all responded.”

Bustamante, a Marine first sergeant from Camp Pendleton, said he did not know the motivation behind the officers’ actions but believed that “one person started this whole thing.” He declined to name that officer.

The jury found that Oceanside Officers Lester Lang, Phillip Tate, Walter Syzonenko, Patrick McCarthy, David Larsen, Ralph Evangelous and Carol Porter had conspired to violate Jensen’s and Smythe’s federal civil rights.

They also found that Lang, Tate, Syzonenko, Evangelous and Porter had acted “maliciously, wantonly, or oppressively” during the raid on the home.

Cleared of any wrongdoing were Officers John Diaz, Brian Mahr, Gary Talkington and Tom Jones.

In arguing for punitive damages against Lang, Tate, Syzonenko, Evangelous and Porter, plaintiffs’ attorney Tom Adler said the intent of asking for the damages was not to embarrass or humiliate any individual.

“This is not a pretty picture, this is not necessarily anything anyone wants to do,” Adler said. “This, in terms of the individual officers, is to act as a deterrent so they don’t do it again.”

Adler also pointed out that the city of Oceanside will pay the $300,000 in damages awarded to Jensen and Smythe.

But the jury summarily rejected that argument, accepting the reasoning of Oceanside’s attorney Dennis Daley that those damages were sufficient.

“Consider the effect that your verdict will already have on the city, on the department and on the individuals,” Daley said. “And consider whether you need to further punish the individuals and further award the plaintiff.”

Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this story.