City to Pay Slain Officer’s Family $3.5 Million

The city of Oxnard agreed Monday to pay $3.5 million to the widow and two children of slain Oxnard Police Officer James Jensen, who was killed by a fellow SWAT team member in a botched drug raid in 1996.

The settlement, which lawyers described as the largest payout involving a law enforcement agency in Ventura County history, was finalized during a brief hearing in federal court in Los Angeles. The family, in its wrongful-death lawsuit against the city, accused the Police Department of shoddy training practices and poor planning in the drug-raid incident.

“I have a real mix of emotions right now,” said Jennifer Jensen, the slain officer’s widow who now lives in Huntington Beach with her children. “It’s a bittersweet victory for us. But this is the only way I could get the kind of answers I was looking for. It’s the only way I could get the truth of what happened to my husband.”

Police Chief Art Lopez, who was hired by the city last December, could not be reached for comment Monday.

James Jensen, 30, was fatally shot three times in the back by Sgt. Daniel Christian, the Special Weapons and Tactics team supervisor and a close friend, during a March 13, 1996, drug raid.

Original reports from the Oxnard Police Department partly blamed Jensen for the shooting, alleging his failure to follow SWAT team procedures contributed to confusion that prompted Christian to accidentally shoot his colleague.

But Edward Steinbrecher, attorney for the Jensen family, blamed a “code of silence” within the department for hiding what really happened that morning.

Steinbrecher noted that an internal police report issued two months before the shooting recommended Christian be removed from the SWAT team because of overly aggressive behavior. The report, by Cmdr. Joseph Munoz, was written following an argument Christian had with a department dispatcher.

“He has progressively become intolerant and hostile toward the department, administration, subordinates, and civilian members of the department,” the report said. “He clearly demonstrates poor judgment, poor leadership, and unprofessional conduct. . . . His behavior demonstrates that his continuance as a supervisor is detrimental to the organization and the community.”

Two months before Jensen was killed, Christian was suspended from the department for 40 hours and removed from the department’s Street Crimes Unit, Steinbrecher said. But Christian remained a member of the department’s SWAT team, he said.

“That’s because the city of Oxnard is a good old boy’s network,” Steinbrecher said. “They should have acted on this situation. But they sat on it. And it didn’t take long for the next event.”

Eight weeks later, in March 1996, SWAT team members stormed a drug house that they later discovered was unoccupied. Christian, described as a close friend and mentor to Jensen, was the commander during that raid.

While in the house, Jensen threw a flash-bang grenade onto a second-floor landing. Jensen then entered a child’s bedroom on the second floor, where Christian mistakenly shot his fellow officer three times at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun.

After the shooting, Jennifer Jensen said she did not blame Christian or the department for the tragedy. But she changed her mind after city officials refused to talk to her and began releasing statements to the media that appeared to blame her husband for the accident.

“I really felt there was a family bond,” Jensen said. “I really trusted these people. But they broke that trust by lying to me and by blaming my husband.”

Alan Wisotsky, the city’s attorney, said Jensen appeared to have broken from standard SWAT team procedures by throwing the flash-bang grenade and then running into the home ahead of his fellow SWAT team members.

“He was an aggressive, conscientious officer,’ Wisotsky said. “But he was also a little too quick on his feet and didn’t follow the rules as he should have. That makes all the difference when you are in a very demanding, precision-oriented operation.”

The district attorney’s investigation concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing involved in the shooting, but it did criticize the department for poor planning. The district attorney’s report was also critical of Christian.

Steinbrecher said Christian’s judgment was further impaired because he was under the influence of heavy medication for sinus and migraine headaches and told attorneys he took as many as eight extra-strength Vicodin tablets a day for pain.

“That’s heavy medication that affects perception, affects judgment,” Steinbrecher said. “This is an officer whose head was under siege from severe migraine pains, taking severe medication that was enough to disable his judgment. A SWAT officer has to make split-second decisions. This is the last kind of officer you want under the influence of a drug with impaired judgment.”

A blood test seven hours after the shooting did show Christian had traces of phenobarbital, a medication for migraines, in his system. But authorities concluded the amount was not enough to affect his judgment.

Steinbrecher, however, said the department should have tested Christian immediately after the shooting to get a clear idea of how much of that drug, and any others, were in his system.

Earlier this year, the Oxnard Police Department instituted a new drug policy mandating any officer using prescription medication must report it to supervisors. Further, any supervisor who suspects an officer may be taking medication can require the officer to take a drug test.

“This case is directly responsible for that policy change,” Steinbrecher said.

The other significant change prompted by the shooting was the complete revamping of the department’s SWAT team operations. The team, once staffed with part-time personnel, is now a full-time unit that also handles gang incidents.

Meanwhile, Wisotsky said Christian is relieved the case is over.

“This has been very traumatic for him as well,” Wisotsky said. “He lost a friend. Christian was a mentor to James Jensen, he stood side-by-side with Jennifer during the funeral. Certainly I think everyone is relieved the family and Jensen’s two daughters will be taken care of.”

Though Jennifer Jensen leaned on Christian for emotional support in the days after the shooting, they have not spoken since the lawsuit began. Still, Jensen said she carries no anger for the man who killed her husband.

“I feel very bad for him,” Jensen said. “I understand these officers have a split second to make these decisions. But he had drugs in his system. And when drugs are in the system, you don’t act rationally, and that’s not OK.”

After the shooting, Christian continued to be plagued by problems. He was involved in another argument with an officer in July 1996, prompting another report from Cmdr. Munoz.

“We need to demonstrate our intolerance for this type of conduct from him,” Munoz wrote. “The conduct exhibited by Sgt. Christian merits severe discipline.”

Shortly after that report, Christian, who is now a sergeant in patrol services, was removed from the SWAT team, Steinbrecher said.

According to the terms of the settlement, Jennifer Jensen will receive 50% of the award, with her 7- and 9-year-old daughters splitting the other half. The family could receive the money, which will be paid in one lump sum, as early as Friday, Steinbrecher said.

Jensen said her family is doing as well as can be expected three years after her husband’s death. Her eldest daughter, Lindsey, struggles with such stress-induced illnesses as migraines, asthma and an ulcer, Jensen said. She was 6 when her father died.

“This has all been exceptionally hard on her,” Jensen said. “She remembers her dad so well.”

Jensen asked for $15 million when she filed suit against the department in February 1997. Both sides said they agreed to the $3.5-million settlement to avoid a lengthy court trial and the potential for subsequent appeals.

Despite the reduced amount, Wisotsky said the award is still “the largest settlement in my 25 years as an attorney.” The city will pay one-third of the cash award and insurance companies for the city will cover the rest.

“But we have to bear in mind,” Wisotsky added, “this is a 31-year-old widow with two small babies who don’t have a dad anymore, a dad who had substantial earning capabilities for the next 25 years.”

Wisotsky said the case would have been difficult to try in front of a jury.

“This was a police officer that was killed, after all--one of the good guys,” Wisotsky said.