Riverside Settles With Officer

One of four white police officers fired after the 1998 shooting death of a 19-year-old black woman will receive $50,000 and half his salary, tax-free, for life under terms of a settlement approved by the City Council.

This week’s settlement ends all legal actions between the city and Michael Alagna, 31. But it precludes him from returning to the force.

The city is continuing settlement talks with the three other former officers -- Paul Bugar, Daniel Hotard and Wayne Stewart -- who are pressing lawsuits and disability claims, demanding reinstatement with back pay or, at a minimum, immediate pensions.

Alagna had been granted a disability retirement based on psychiatric injuries, but he later presented evidence that he has “fully recovered from his alleged psychiatric injury,” according to the eight-page settlement.

The change made Alagna eligible for “50% of his salary under the Public Employees Retirement System,” said city spokeswoman Laurie Payne. His salary was not disclosed in the settlement agreement.

“This issue has been lingering since December 1998,” said Alagna’s attorney, Bill Hadden. “He wanted to move on with his life, so he entered into this agreement, which resolves all legal issues with the city.”

Hadden said an arbitrator found that the officers “had done nothing wrong, and that it was a managerial abuse of discretion to have fired them.”

Carolyn B. Murray, a member of the Tyisha Miller Steering Committee and a professor of psychology and ethnic studies at UC Riverside, was disappointed with the settlement.

“I’m sickened by it,” she said. “Leave it at that.”

Miller was killed shortly after 2 a.m. Dec. 28, 1998, when police fired a barrage of bullets into the car in which she had been sleeping.

Officers had been dispatched to a service station where Miller had locked herself in her disabled car and passed out with a gun in her lap. When the officers broke the side window of the car, Miller awakened with a start.

Officers then opened fire because, they said, they feared for their lives. Miller, who was shot 12 times, did not fire her gun.

The four officers were subsequently cleared of criminal wrongdoing, most recently by the U.S. Justice Department.

The case triggered an uproar among many African Americans in Riverside, who wanted the officers tried for murder and placed the department under intense scrutiny.

State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer ordered the Police Department to adopt a sweeping reform plan designed to root out any racism.

Lockyer’s office, however, declined to prosecute the officers, all of whom were fired for their conduct in the shooting, on grounds of insufficient evidence.

Similar conclusions were reached by the Riverside County district attorney and the U.S. Justice Department.