Gates, 7 Officers Told to Pay Damages

Former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and seven members of the department’s Special Investigations Section must pay punitive damages to the 5-year-old daughter of a robbery suspect who was shot and killed by the officers in 1990, a federal judge has ordered.

In a judgment entered in Federal Court this week, U. S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts ordered the officers to pay Johanna Trevino, daughter of Javier Trevino, $9,109 out of their own pockets.

The order is the latest action in a series of lawsuits that charged Los Angeles Police Department officers had wrongfully killed Trevino and two other men.

On Feb. 12, 1990, SIS investigators watched as Trevino and three accomplices robbed a McDonald’s restaurant in Sunland. SIS officers shot and killed three of the men, saying the robbers leveled weapons at them while attempting to flee.

The officers later discovered that the men’s weapons were air pistols.

A lawsuit initiated by the robbers’ relatives claimed the men had been shot while unarmed and a federal jury found the deaths to be wrongful, awarding $44,042 in damages. In a rare gesture, the jury also asked that the police officers involved pay the money out of their own pockets.

Johanna Trevino, born six days after her father’s death, later filed her own lawsuit against the city and the Police Department, seeking compensation for her father’s death. After two mistrials, a federal court jury finally awarded the girl $1 in compensatory damages. The defendants agreed to pay Johanna punitive damages of $9,109, equal to the highest amount paid to an individual plaintiff in the earlier case.

“We aren’t surprised by this, but it was always our contention that punitive damages should only be paid once, so the officer would be punished and shouldn’t have to pay again,” said Don Vincent, who represented the officers and the city for the city attorney’s office. “Basically, paying that amount was to keep from trying the underlying case all over again.”

Vincent said the officers are considering a challenge to the order.

The judgment orders Gates to pay Johanna Trevino $4,342.66. Officers John Helms and Richard Zierenberg must pay $1,059.19 each, while Jerry Brooks, Warren Eggar, David Harrison, Richard Spelman and Gary Strickland were ordered to pay $529.29 each.

Stephen Yagman, attorney for Johanna, refused to comment on the award.