Deal Would Settle 29 Suits in Rampart Scandal for $10.9 Million

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has agreed to pay $10.9 million to settle 29 federal civil rights lawsuits arising from the Rampart police scandal, it was disclosed Monday.

The package deal, negotiated with attorney Gregory Yates, must be approved by the city’s claim board and the City Council before it becomes final.

Chief Assistant City Atty. Thomas Hokinson said the claims board will take up the proposal Wednesday. If approved, it will be sent on to the City Council for consideration behind closed doors.

Hokinson and Yates said they hope the out-of-court settlement sets an example for other lawyers suing in the Rampart case, in which anti-gang officers are accused of beating, shooting and framing innocent people.

More than 60 other Rampart-related suits are pending in federal court. City officials estimate the total will climb to 275, costing taxpayers $125 million.

Monday’s action marked the first collective settlement in the Rampart civil rights litigation.

Terms of the deal were hammered out in talks mediated by retired state appellate Judge Jack Goertzen last month.

Hokinson, chief of civil litigation, represented the city in the negotiations, while Yates was joined by Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

Both sides declined to say how much each plaintiff would receive in compensation, except that the amounts vary depending on the circumstances of their treatment by police.

The plaintiffs range from some who were roughed up and held briefly at the Rampart Division station house to others who were convicted on trumped-up charges and sentenced to as much as 30 months behind bars.

Yates declined to say how much he would get in legal fees if the settlement is approved. “That’s between the clients and myself,” he said. However, he said he has invested 5,000 to 6,000 hours in the cases.

“What is before us reflects a good balance between doing justice and protecting taxpayer dollars,” said Councilman Mike Feuer, who heads the council’s budget and finance committee, which will review the deal before it is sent to the full council.

“This does represent about one-third of the lawsuits filed so far. It demonstrates that the city is prepared to aggressively resolve matters when we have the appropriate facts and a willing plaintiffs’ counsel.”

Yates said he began settlement talks with the city attorney’s office in August, and the two sides eventually agreed to have Goertzen mediate the dispute.

Goertzen listened to presentations from both sides and reviewed each of the 29 cases before coming up with a settlement proposal within a few thousand dollars of the final agreement, according to Yates.

“He did an extraordinary job at mediation,” Yates said of the former judge.

Since that mediation began, the federal court has moved to encourage other litigants to follow the same course.

In September, all Rampart civil rights cases were consolidated under U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess for pretrial proceedings that include settlement talks. Attorneys in the pending cases have been asked to appear at a hearing Dec. 4 to recommend possible mediators.

Notwithstanding the efforts to settle the cases through mediation, several attorneys, including Yates, are pursuing class action lawsuits against the city.

It will be up to Feess to decide whether any of the suits can be prosecuted as class actions, a move that invariably would bring many more plaintiffs into the case.

The city attorney’s office opposes class action certification, contending that circumstances surrounding the various cases are too dissimilar.

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.