$129,000 Awarded to 3 Men Stopped by Torrance Police

A federal jury on Monday ruled that Torrance police officers violated the civil rights of three Latino men during a 1994 traffic stop in which, the men claimed, the officers pulled them over at gunpoint, used racial epithets and then escorted them out of town.

The jury awarded Luis Ortiz, Jose Esparza and Jose Rodriguez, all of Inglewood, a total of $120,000 in punitive damages and $9,100 in actual damages stemming from the July 19, 1994, incident.

The verdict “will make a difference because the public is finally becoming aware of police misconduct . . . if only because of the O.J. [Simpson] case and the Rodney King case,” said Howard Price, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. “Times are changing.”

In the second phase of the trial, which begins today, the plaintiffs will ask the jury to levy punitive damages against Torrance Police Chief Joseph De Ladurantey.

“He was responsible for the conduct of his officers,” Price said. The plaintiffs could not be reached for comment.

De Ladurantey could not be reached for comment Monday. Torrance City Atty. John L. Fellows III declined to comment until the case is over. During the seven-day trial before U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird in Los Angeles, attorneys Price and Michael Adelson argued that training officer Martin Dempsey and probationary officer Joseph Gaines had verbally harassed and physically abused their clients, including grabbing the testicles of one and hitting another on the head with a flashlight, after a routine traffic stop.

In a span of one hour that night, Price said, the officers pulled over his clients’ vehicle and three others--two of which also were carrying members of racial minorities--but issued no citations and made no arrests.

“[They] were engaged in stopping vehicles willy-nilly, either just to get the experience or because they had a policy of stopping people of color,” Price said.

Attorneys for the city argued that the three men had been acting suspiciously--driving with their lights off by a shopping center that had been closed for hours. The men, ranging in age from 19 to 21, were questioned, they said, but in no way abused.

The U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a separate lawsuit against the city, accusing its police and fire departments of following racially biased hiring practices and having racially hostile work environments.

That lawsuit should come to trial early next year, a Department of Justice spokesman said. The city, which has won six other civil rights suits against its Police Department in the last year, has repeatedly denied the charges and has spent more than $2 million defending itself.