Suit by Man Alleges Police Violated His Civil Rights

A man has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city of Torrance and 13 Torrance police officers for allegedly violating his civil rights when he was detained last summer after a police pursuit.

Rudy Viveros Jr. filed the lawsuit on Monday, saying he was beaten unconscious and his right hand was fractured when officers allegedly used flashlights, batons and fists to hit him on the head, back and side when he was stopped at 2:30 a.m. on July 7, 1996, after being chased as a suspect in a car theft.

The action is the latest in a series of lawsuits filed by members of minorities charging that they have been unjustly treated by Torrance police.

Three teenagers, two of them African Americans, sued the department for alleged civil rights violations stemming from a “frightening and humiliating” search that occurred in May 1994. Last month, a federal jury awarded them $245,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

In 1995, three Latino men won a $379,000 settlement after they filed a lawsuit against Torrance for a 1994 traffic stop in which they said they were pulled out of their car at gunpoint and had officers hurl racial slurs at them.