Sheriff Attempting to Settle False-Arrest Suit

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is attempting to settle a federal false-arrest lawsuit brought by a Westlake Village businessman who was arrested and briefly jailed as the suspect in a 1999 beating that left his ex-wife in a coma.

Lawyers for the Sheriff’s Department declined to give specifics on the proposed settlement with Lee R. Mannheimer until it is approved by the Board of Supervisors, which is expected to consider the matter behind closed doors Tuesday.

“I’m reluctant to talk about the terms until the board hears it first,” Oxnard attorney Alan Wisotsky said Friday.

Mannheimer’s lawyer, John Burton, also refused to release a dollar figure. But Burton called the amount a “true compromise” reached after a daylong session with a federal magistrate overseeing the case.

The case had been scheduled to go to trial this spring in Los Angeles.

“[The county] is agreeing to pay something but nothing near what a jury would pay if it found 100% for Mr. Mannheimer,” Burton said.

The Pasadena lawyer added that most of the settlement would go to Mannheimer’s 11-year-old son, Maxx, who is also named as a plaintiff.

Mannheimer intends to place the money in a trust account to cover his son’s college costs, his attorney said.

Mannheimer, 59, filed the lawsuit after he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in October 1999 in connection with the near-fatal beating of his former wife, Linda Lou Morrisset. He was jailed for four days but released after prosecutors declined to file charges, citing a lack of evidence.

Although an investigation is still open, no charges have been filed in the case.

Mannheimer alleged in his suit that sheriff’s detectives violated his civil rights by arresting him even though he had an “airtight alibi” the night Morrisset was savagely beaten over the head in her home near Camarillo.

She was found lying in a pool of blood the next morning by a family housekeeper but survived.

Mannheimer also alleged that detectives maliciously launched a child-welfare investigation that resulted in his son being removed from his custody for three months.

He and his son suffered emotional trauma, Mannheimer alleged, and his reputation was tarnished by news accounts of the arrest.

Morrisset’s attorney was unavailable for comment. In court documents filed in a civil case involving her ex-husband, Morrisset, 50, said she suffered severe brain injuries and is now confined to a wheelchair.

Mannheimer’s attorney acknowledged that his client’s former wife is so disabled that she is often unable to exercise her shared custody rights.

“It’s amazing she lived,” Burton said. “If my client were on the phone, he would say he is sorry for what happened to her. But he obviously had nothing to do with it.”

Other litigation concerning the assault is continuing.

Mannheimer brought a defamation suit against Morrisset, saying she continues to publicly accuse him of the crime even though no criminal charges have been filed. Also, Morrisset and her husband, Richard Morrisset, filed their own action alleging Mannheimer should be found civilly responsible for the attack and forced to pay an unspecified amount for his former wife’s medical bills, nursing care and emotional distress.

A similar lawsuit was used to win a $33.5-million civil verdict against O.J. Simpson after he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.

The Mannheimer and Morrisset cases have been consolidated and court records show they are set for a jury trial in Ventura County on May 20.

Mannheimer was investigated in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme against Morrisset in 1993, when she was married to him. Northern California authorities looked into claims that Mannheimer was trying to hire two men to kill her.

But the case was never filed. Mannheimer denied any involvement in such a scheme, and the investigation of all three men was later dropped.

The following year, the couple went through a bitter divorce marked by frequent battles over custody and support issues, court records show.

Mannheimer still lives in Westlake Village and holds an executive position with a Chatsworth lighting company, his attorney said. Burton described him as a doting father to his son.