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Policemen Awarded $2.4 million in California Beating Case
Two police officers involved in a videotaped beating of a black teenager that sparked nationwide outrage have been awarded $2.4 million by a Los Angeles jury that found they were unfairly disciplined. The larger jury award of $1.6 million went to Jeremy Morse who was fired from the Inglewood police force immediately after the 2002 incident in which he was captured on an amateur videotape slamming a 16 year-old onto a squad car and punching him in the jaw after a routine vehicle stop. The incident, shown repeatedly on nationwide television, had echoes of the infamous beating by four Los Angeles police of black motorist Rodney King that in 1992 sparked some of the worst urban rioting in U.S. history. Morse, who is white, sued the mostly black city of Inglewood alleging he was disciplined unfairly because a black officer who was also at the scene, but never charged, was suspended for only five days. He claimed racial discrimination and on Tuesday was awarded the damages. Morse had been tried twice on assault charges but the jury deadlocked both times and prosecutors dropped the case a year ago. His partner, Bijan Darvish, was suspended for 10 days and later acquitted of filing a false police report over the incident. Darvish claimed his suspension was excessive and was awarded $811,000 damages. Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn was astonished by the verdict. "How do you give a man who was suspended for only 10 days more than $800,000? Morse was fired, but $1.6 million?" Dorn told the Los Angeles Times. Lawyer Paul Coble, who represented Inglewood in the case, said he would meet with city officials next week to consider appealing either the verdict or the size of the award. Posted by: Destro 2005-01-19 |
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