Judge Slashes Jury Award to Ex-Mayor
A $1.2-million jury award to former South Pasadena Mayor Lee D. Prentiss against the city for violating his civil rights was slashed to $500,000 last week by a Pasadena Superior Court judge.
The reduction will keep the city from emptying its reserves and cutting services to make up the losses, city officials said.
“It’s disappointing. It was a lot of money,” David King, Prentiss’ attorney, said of Judge J. Michael Byrne’s Nov. 14 ruling.
Prentiss has until Monday to reject the new award and has yet to make a decision, King said. If he rejects the award, a new trial will be held on the single issue of economic damages.
A jury awarded Prentiss the money in July after finding the city had violated his civil rights in 1990. The jury ruled that the city conspired to revoke Prentiss’ permit to expand his 86-year-old home because of his conservative political views.
In his ruling, Byrne wrote that jurors had failed to take into account Prentiss’ already precarious financial position before the problems with the permit and that economists testifying on Prentiss’ behalf had overestimated his losses.
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