County Pays $123,000 in Excessive Force Case

Los Angeles County has paid $123,000 to a Rosemead father and son after a jury found last month that two sheriff’s deputies used excessive force when they struck the men on their heads during a 1989 confrontation at the family’s San Gabriel Valley home.

Lawyers on both sides said the incident, which occurred more than four years ago, never generated an internal sheriff’s investigation--despite victims’ contentions that deputies, without provocation, struck them on their heads with flashlights and batons.

“This is another of the many instances of abuse by deputy sheriffs that went without discipline,” said Antonio H. Rodriguez, the Los Angeles attorney for the victims.

The deputies maintained that they used minimal force to subdue a violent attack by the two men.

While declining to discuss the specifics of this case, sheriff’s authorities say their internal review procedures have improved considerably, particularly since a scathing special counsel’s report in July, 1992, found a deeply disturbing pattern of excessive force, brutality and lax discipline.

The Sheriff’s Department has committed to implementing most of the reforms suggested by the Kolts report, named after James G. Kolts, the retired Superior Court judge who headed the inquiry.

Among its findings, the inquiry expressed alarm that the department “has no clear guidelines” for identifying situations in which it is inappropriate to strike the head--a potentially life-threatening use of force.

Sheriff’s Lt. Neal Tyler, who is helping to implement the Kolts recommendations, said that immediately after the report, department policy was modified to outlaw head strikes except in cases in which deadly force was justified to save the lives of officers or others.

The Kolts inquiry also called upon sheriff’s administrators to review civil cases for use in identifying troublesome trends and potential problem officers.

Rodriguez, the attorney in the Rosemead case, maintains that such civil actions should prompt sheriff’s investigators to re-examine many incidents--particularly since the sheriff’s internal review process was found to be deficient in the Kolts report. “You have all these civil cases hanging around that someone should take a second look at,” Rodriguez said.

But it is unlikely that lawsuits will spur disciplinary action against deputies, sheriff’s officials said. Most civil cases are based on incidents that are often many years old and reopening them would not be practical, said Lt. Dennis Burns, who oversees the sheriff’s civil litigation unit.

County authorities commissioned the report in part because of concern about skyrocketing costs in settlements, judgments and legal fees arising from excessive force claims. Taxpayers doled out about $50 million in such payments in a six-year period ending in July, 1993, documents show.

In awarding $123,000 to the Rosemead family, a civil jury in Pasadena Superior Court found that the two officers violated the father’s and son’s civil rights.

The lawsuit stemmed from an incident that occurred Oct. 18, 1989, when, the victims alleged, deputies barged into their home without permission and beat Francisco M. Illingworth, 59, a retired laborer originally from Mexico, and his son, Paul Illingworth, 25, a construction worker. Neither man had a criminal record.

According to deputies’ accounts, they entered the home after observing the son engage in what they believed was a drug transaction on the street. The son denied any wrongdoing; no drugs were found in the house.

The father and son said they were beaten without provocation.

During the fracas, according to testimony, Deputy James Willmon hit the father on the head with a flashlight; Willmon said he was aiming for the man’s collarbone. Another deputy, Alan Scott Young, testified that he may have hit the son on the head with his baton while aiming for his torso.

Willmon has since retired. Young was recently promoted.