City to Appeal Judgment in Police-Custody Death

The city will appeal a $1-million judgment in favor of the children of a disabled Army veteran who died after police handcuffed him on a South Los Angeles street, authorities said Thursday.

Anthony Eady, 52, died three days after he fell, hands cuffed behind his back, hit his head and suffered brain damage while in police custody on suspicion of drug possession, on Aug. 26, 2000.

No drugs were found, but tests showed Eady was heavily intoxicated.

His son, Amar Eady, 28, was awarded $669,100, and his daughter, Rashidah Thomas-Eady, 24, $350,000, for economic damages and pain and suffering Wednesday in the Compton courtroom of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Marlene Kristovich.

The police officer, Jeffrey Wilson, had stopped Eady while he was standing on the street, handcuffed him when he refused to identify himself and then may have shoved him in the back, causing the fall, said Randy McMurray, lawyer for the children.

Deputy City Atty. Richard M. Arias countered that a blood test showed Eady had a blood alcohol content of 0.448 at the time he fell, more than five times the drunk-driving limit, which may have been the cause of the fall.

Arias said Wilson, who is now on an unrelated disability leave from the LAPD, had reason to believe Eady was involved in a drug transaction, although no drugs were found.

“This was a very difficult case to try,” Arias said Thursday. “We had two innocent plaintiffs, and their father was dead.”

Eady was African American, as is Wilson. The jury was made up of three Latinos, four blacks and five whites.

McMurray and Arias agreed that the testimony of the county coroner’s office, represented by Dr. Louis Pena, was important, but they interpreted it differently.

McMurray said that Pena testified to finding signs of deep tissue bleeding in the lower middle of Eady’s back, which had to have been caused by a substantial blow. The back injury occurred about the same time as his head injury in the fall.

Arias said Pena also testified that there was no evidence that the veteran had been hit by a nightstick or kicked. He also found no evidence that Eady’s hands and wrists, handcuffed behind his back at the time, were bruised.

McMurray said the city had offered a $100,000 to settle the case, but McMurray demanded at least $750,000.