STUDIO CITY : $1.8 Million Awarded Victim of Assault

A jury Friday awarded almost $2 million damages to a woman who sued funk singer Rick James for beating and imprisoning her in his hotel room two years ago.

The hotel was also held liable for damages because the jury found that its management was negligent in its obligation to safeguard its guests, said Paul Sigelman, attorney for plaintiff Mary Sauer.

Sigelman said the jury will return to Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs’ courtroom Monday to decide punitive damages.

James’ attorney, Richard Morse, was not available for comment.

The singer, best known for his 1981 hit “Super Freak,” was convicted in 1993 of assaulting another woman at his Studio City home and Sauer at the St. James’s Club & Hotel in West Hollywood. He was ordered to serve five years and four months in state prison.

While out on bail in 1992 for the first assault, James invited Sauer to the hotel room he was sharing with his girlfriend, Tanya Anne Hijazi, for a business meeting. After the meeting was over, Sigelman said, James--coming down from a cocaine binge--restrained and assaulted Sauer over a period of 12 hours.

At one point during the attack, the two ordered room service, Sigelman said, and Sauer begged the waiter for help. Although the waiter alerted the hotel’s security guards, who alerted the management, nothing was done, Sigelman said.

The jury, which deliberated for two days after four weeks of testimony, found the hotel liable for more than $700,000 of the total damages.

“The hotel had the ability to prevent further injury and failed to act,” Sigelman said, adding metaphorically that “Rick James started the fire, but the hotel failed to put it out when they knew about it and had an obligation to do so.”

In addition to more than $200,000 in lost future earnings, Sigelman asked the jury to give Sauer the same feeling of security afforded to both the hotel and to James.

A hotel security guard earns about $12 and hour, Sigelman told the jurors. He then asked that they consider how many hours it would take Sauer to feel secure and then multiply that number by 12 to get an appropriate dollar amount. The jury awarded her $1.6 million for her emotional distress.