Verdict favors former inmate
A federal jury Thursday awarded $210,000 in punitive damages to a former Los Angeles County Jail inmate who said sheriff’s deputies repeatedly assaulted him in 1998.
The verdict, returned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Walsh in Los Angeles, came two days after jurors awarded inmate Anthony Albert Jimenez $155,000 as compensation for his injuries.
Jimenez contended that deputies assaulted him on three dates at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility near downtown Los Angeles.
In the most serious allegation, Jimenez alleged that Deputy Gabriel Frank Gonzalez beat him on the head with a metal flashlight while other deputies restrained him. Gonzalez was later fired and sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting three women while on patrol in Compton and surrounding areas.
Both Gonzalez and Jimenez, who is serving a 25-years-to-life sentence under the state’s “three strikes” law, were transported from prison to attend the trial.
In addition to the beating by Gonzalez, Jimenez accused Deputy Ryan Bergner of slamming his head against a steel sink and Sgt. Gilbert Duron of beating him while he was restrained. The jury ordered Gonzalez to pay $150,000 in punitive damages, Bergner $50,000 and Duron, now retired, $10,000. It was unclear whether the department would pay the damages on behalf of its employees.
The deputies’ attorney, L. Trevor Grimm, could not be reached for comment.
Jimenez’s attorney, Emilio G. Gonzalez, said the punitive damages were justified and that he hoped they would serve as a deterrent to further abuse of inmates.
“We give our peace officers a considerable amount of power and authority, and we hope and trust they use it wisely,” Emilio Gonzalez said. “If they break that trust, we need to make sure they’ll be punished for crossing that line and know not to do it again.”
Emilio Gonzalez’s law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, is the Los Angeles Times’ outside counsel on the 1st Amendment and other matters. The firm handled the case pro bono.
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