City Lawyers OK Award in Shooting : Lawsuit: Pact gives $375,000 to a man who claimed officers framed him for a robbery after wounding him. Matter goes to City Council.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has approved a $375,000 settlement of a man’s claim that police officers framed him for a robbery to cover up a shooting that left him wounded and imprisoned, officials said Wednesday.

The settlement, which must be approved by the City Council, was announced as jury selection was about to begin in the second trial of John Shelton Jr.’s lawsuit against the city. The first trial ended last summer with a hung jury.

Deputy City Atty. Don Vincent said the settlement offer was made Tuesday “on the basis of economics, primarily.”

Noting that the jury in the first trial had been leaning toward Shelton’s theory of a conspiracy to cover up the incident, Vincent said that if the city had gone to trial again and lost, the fees for Shelton’s attorney, John C. Burton of Pasadena, would have surpassed the settlement figure.

Shelton, 38, was shot in the chest by Officer Robert Richards on July 22, 1989, in an alley near Broadway and Florence Avenue.

Richards and other officers said they mistook Shelton for a suspect in a South-Central Los Angeles holdup. Officer Jeffrey Nolte said he thought Shelton had a gun and was about to fire, but no gun was found.

Nonetheless, Shelton, who was on parole for an arson conviction, was sent back to prison for 11 months after a parole hearing at which several of the officers involved testified.

Shelton sued Richards, Nolte and 13 other officers, including Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, convicted this year of violating the civil rights of motorist Rodney G. King.

Burton said that Koon masterminded a cover-up in the Shelton case, telling officers at the scene what to write in their reports. In his testimony during the case, Koon said he remembered little about the incident.

Burton argued in the first trial that the officers, acting with approval of former Chief Daryl F. Gates and the Officer Involved Shooting Detail, agreed to frame Shelton to justify the shooting.