Judge Tentatively Denies Bid to Dismiss Civil Rights Suit

A federal judge has tentatively denied Torrance’s request to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit filed by one of three men already awarded a $379,000 settlement resulting from an earlier altercation with city police.

The lawsuit filed by Luis Ortiz, 21, of Inglewood, alleges that he was threatened by a police officer on May 27 at the Del Amo Fashion Center. At the time, the lawsuit claims, Officer Martin Dempsey swore and shouted at Ortiz and put his hand on his service revolver while Ortiz stood by with his wife, infant son and brother.

Last November, Ortiz was one of three Latino men awarded a settlement by the city of Torrance after a federal jury found that Dempsey and another white officer violated the trio’s civil rights during a 1994 traffic stop in the city.

After a seven-day trial, jurors upheld the trio’s claims that the officers pulled them from their car at gunpoint, hurled racial epithets and yanked one man’s testicles during a confrontation that lasted almost two hours.

In the new lawsuit, it is alleged that Ortiz’s civil rights were again violated by Dempsey in retaliation for the earlier settlement.

“The idea that a uniformed cop could threaten a citizen, motivated in our mind by bigotry, but motivated specifically by retaliation for a citizen prevailing in a civil rights lawsuit, is outrageous. And the idea he is a police officer should concern us all,” said Ortiz’s attorney, Howard Price.

But in asking that the lawsuit be dismissed, attorneys for the city argued that the incident at the shopping center did not rise to the level of threat or injury needed to establish a violation of Ortiz’s civil rights.

Attorneys for Torrance further argued that Ortiz’s 1995 settlement precluded him from using the 1994 incident as any basis for future litigation.

“If you look at this [latest] incident by itself, you don’t have a lawsuit,” said attorney Martha Shen, who has been retained by Torrance to help defend the case along with the city attorney’s office.

But the judge, in a ruling expected to be finalized this week, did not agree that the Ortiz claim should be dismissed. Judge Lourdes G. Baird’s official ruling was delayed so the judge could review defense papers that were not immediately filed with the court.

Pending her final decision, Baird did admonish attorney Shen for what she characterized as unprofessional conduct in earlier papers filed with the court. Specifically, the judge criticized the attorney’s use of quotations from other court rulings, including one that said: “It is not uncommon for ignorant and corrupt men to falsely charge others with doing what they imagine that they themselves, in their narrow minds and experience, would have done under the circumstances.”

While Ortiz’s attorney said the damages actually sought in the case will depend on facts as they unfold, his lawsuit seeks $250,000 in general damages against Dempsey and the city and $500,000 in punitive damages against Torrance’s police chief.

No trial date has been set.