Southeast : Long Beach to Weigh $3.8-Million Ruling Against City
One spring day in 1991, Long Beach Police Cmdr. Wayne Meeks walked into the chief’s office and had a psychotic breakdown.
“He was led out in a straitjacket, basically, completely out of touch with the world,” says Meeks’ lawyer, Thomas Barham.
Meeks says now that he was brought to that state by a systematic policy of harassment by the city and police brass, who verbally abused him, stripped him of benefits and threatened him with dismissal. He was hospitalized for 12 days and, when he was released, was unable to work.
“He was a ruined man,” Barham says.
A jury in Los Angeles Federal District Court agreed last week, granting Meeks $3.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The Long Beach City Council meets in executive session today to consider the city’s options.
“We feel the amount is excessive,” said Assistant City Atty. Robert E. Shannon, who said he would recommend motions to reduce the award and to ask for a new trial. The council will also consider an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal . . .
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