Agreement reached in 2nd Inglewood police-abuse lawsuit after trial starts
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at 05:41PM
TheSpook
A day after a trial started in a police-abuse lawsuit against a
controversial former Inglewood officer, a judge approved a settlement
in which the city will pay $590,000, lawyers said. Last Wednesday's action marked the second time there was a
settlement in the lawsuit Surjue filed against the city of Inglewood,
former police officer Jeremy Morse and officer Bijan Darvish. Last
year, Surjue said she agreed to a $470,000 settlement, but that deal
was nixed after she later said her lawyers at the time and U.S.
District Judge S. James Otero pressured her into settling her case.
Otero later ordered the case to trial, which started Tuesday with jury
selection. Testimony was slated to begin Wednesday but the new accord
ended the trial. Surjue's new lawyer Joseph L. Shalant said his client
was pleased with the new agreement, which he called "final." "It's a
very fair settlement," Shalant said. As part of the agreement, the
claims against Morse, Darvish and other officers would be dismissed and
the city of Inglewood will be the sole defendant, Shalant said.
Surjue's lawsuit claimed that in October 2001, Morse and Darvish
illegally entered her house, then Morse rushed toward her and pushed
her into a wall and stairway railing. She fell down and fractured her
coccyx, the suit contends. Glave said defense lawyers would have
challenged Surjue's account and he was ready to argue that medical
records showed "no objective signs of any assault taking place that
night." [more]
Pictured above:
Officer Morse was criminally charged and fired after he was seen on a
widely broadcast videotape beating and slamming 16 year old, Donovan Jackson while he was handcuffed in July
2002. The criminal charges were dropped [more]
Police-brutality victim Patricia Surjue and her elusive day in court [more]
Second Police Officer Admits Punching California Teenager [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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