City Will Defend Officer in Shooting of Suspect

The city attorney’s office received the green light to go to trial on a federal civil rights case after a City Council panel Tuesday rejected a settlement offer of $3 million.

The city’s attorneys recommended that the Budget and Finance Committee reject the settlement, believing that the city has a strong case to make in court.

The action comes as the city attorney’s office has come under scrutiny by some in City Hall for seeking settlements too readily rather than going to trial.

The case Tuesday involved the death of Etone Lewis by an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, Elpidio Orozco, in November 1997. Orozco said he saw Lewis robbing a man near a bank automated teller machine at Hawthorne Boulevard and 136th Street. Orozco told authorities that he saw Lewis pointing a gun at the man and that when he told Lewis to stop, he turned the gun toward the police officer and fired a shot. At that point, Orozco already had his gun drawn and he shot Lewis in the chest.

According to a confidential report to the council members obtained by The Times, there are a few weaknesses in the city’s case, including the fact that a gun found in a nearby trash bin and reportedly used in several robberies by Lewis that night could not have discharged the bullet that was found after Lewis shot at the police officer.