Jury Awards $1.1 Million to Man Beaten in Hate Crime : Court: Three young men involved in the 1993 attack on Loc Minh Truong at Laguna Beach are found liable.

An Orange County Superior Court jury on Tuesday awarded $1.1 million to a 57-year-old man nearly beaten to death by a group of young men in one of Orange County’s most notorious hate crimes.

Two men convicted of assaulting Loc Minh Truong in 1993 because they thought he was gay financially were held liable for battery and civil rights violations. A third young man, a former police Explorer who was with the other two the night of the attack but was never arrested, was found liable for negligence.

Truong suffered permanent brain damage in the Jan. 8, 1993, attack on a rocky Laguna Beach shoreline. The attackers also broke his teeth, dislodged his left eye from its socket and impaled the back of his head on a rock.

Truong reached a settlement of more than $430,000 with seven other teen-agers who were also part of the group but were never arrested.

Although Truong’s attorney, Russell Kerr, had asked for $4 million in damages, he said he was happy with Tuesday’s award.

“We are pleased that Mr. Truong has received a recovery that he can use for his future care,” Kerr said. “This sends a message that jurors aren’t going to tolerate this kind of behavior.”

Truong, an electronics plant worker who was unemployed at the time of the attack, spent more than a month in the hospital and has since had to move in with family members for help with his care.

Kerr said Truong still suffers from hearing loss in his right ear and memory lapses.

During the civil court trial, Kerr focused on issues of group responsibility, accusing Edward DaCosta, 19, of purposely driving his friends, including co-defendants Jeff Raines, 19, and Christopher Cribbins, 23, to a beach near a gay bar knowing there could be trouble.

According to court testimony, the group of mostly high school students had been drinking at a Laguna Beach nightclub when Raines suggested they “beat up” some gays. Most of the defendants denied hearing such a statement.

DaCosta, the only defendant with legal representation in the civil case, denied knowing that Raines and Cribbins intended to attack anyone. He said he did nothing to provoke the assault.

Raines and Cribbins never responded to Truong’s suit, which was filed in 1993, Kerr said.

One of DaCosta’s attorneys, Jeff Koller, said outside the courtroom that DaCosta “was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had nothing to be blamed for.”

Stephen Coontz, another attorney who represented the San Juan Capistrano college student, said that DaCosta had followed Raines and Cribbins down to the beach to see what they were doing but ran away without ever inflicting a blow. He was never charged in the assault.

But Kerr said jurors agreed unanimously after 1 1/2 days of deliberations that DaCosta was responsible for the attack on the beach.

“People who stand by and don’t actively engage in an attack can still be held responsible,” Kerr said. “You can’t encourage or facilitate violence.”

Raines, who authorities said actually beat Truong, pleaded guilty last year to attempted murder and other charges, including the commission of a hate crime. He was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, where he remains today.

Cribbins, who authorities said started the attack by pushing Truong and then ran away, pleaded guilty to assault and committing a hate crime. He received a one-year jail sentence, which he has already served, and was placed on probation for five years.

In a complex formula for deciding liability, all three will share full responsibility for $325,000 in economic damages--out-of-pocket expenses, medical bills and loss of earnings. Raines was found financially liable for 50% of the $775,000 in non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering. Cribbins was assigned 30% liability, and DaCosta was assigned 20%.

Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben-Stock will issue a final judgment in the case within the next few weeks that is expected to uphold the jury’s award, Kerr said.