Judgment Voided in Fatal Shooting by Drunk Deputy
A federal appeals court threw out a $750,000 judgment Tuesday against Los Angeles County, which was sued after a fatal shooting by a drunk, off-duty sheriff’s deputy.
The court said the county was not responsible because it could not have foreseen the deputy’s violent act and had no duty to prohibit officers from off-duty drinking.
Deputy Thomas Kirsch shot John Huffman to death after an argument in a Rowland Heights bar in 1994. Both men were drunk, according to trial testimony. Huffman, who wrestled Kirsch to the ground outside the bar, was unarmed.
Kirsch was not charged with a crime or fired from his job.
A jury found that the county was deliberately indifferent to the problem of drunk deputies and awarded $750,000 to Huffman’s parents, which was reduced by a $300,000 settlement they had collected from Kirsch.
But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in the 3-0 decision that the county was not legally responsible.
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