$4 million for officers stuns LAPD
Jury finds pair faced discrimination within the department after the fatal shooting of autistic man in 2010.
Five years ago, two Los Angeles police officers on patrol in Koreatown noticed Steve Washington walking down the street alone after midnight.
According to the officers, Washington failed to comply with their commands and then reached for his waistband. Police opened fire, killing Washington. It turned out Washington was unarmed and autistic.
The shooting has been the subject of numerous court hearings and internal LAPD reviews. In 2012, Washington’s mother received a $950,000 settlement from the city.
Last week, a jury awarded the two officers nearly $4 million in a civil lawsuit they filed against the LAPD, alleging they were the victims of discrimination after the shooting. Allan Corrales, 35, was awarded more than $2 million while George Diego, 34, was awarded $1.9 million.
The verdict comes as the Los Angeles Police Department is trying to reduce the number of suits filed against the agency by its own officers. A Times investigation in 2011 found that officers sued the department over workplace issues more than 250 times between 2005 and 2011. The city paid settlements or verdicts totaling more than $18 million.
Corrales and Diego alleged they repeatedly faced discrimination and were retaliated against following the shooting. The officers both are Latino and Wash-
ington, 27, was black. Corrales and Diego said they made requests to return to the field but were denied. They also alleged they were passed over for promotions and transfers.
During the trial, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck testified the officers were given desk jobs after the fatal shooting because they were unfit to work in the field and not because of their race. The officers, he said, made serious tactical errors during their encounter with Washington. But Beck said the shooting was justified because they feared for their lives.
The civilian commission that oversees the LAPD, however, found that the officers violated the department’s use-of-force policy and that the shooting was unreasonable.
“I do not have confidence in their ability to perform the duties of a field officer,” Beck said. “I have no immediate intention of returning them to the field.”
The verdict left the lawyer for Washington’s mother stunned. “There is nothing at all justified about this shooting,” Brian Dunn said. “They took the life of an unarmed, autistic man for no reason whatsoever.”
Gregory W. Smith, the officers’ attorney, said the jury’s verdict shows there are much larger issues that need to be addressed: Officers need more training on how to handle people with mental illness, and those suffering with mental illness need more protection and support. “You don’t fix the problem by blaming two people for what they were trained to do,” Smith said.
He also said his clients were treated unfairly by the LAPD.
Smith said during the trial that a white officer testified that he had shot an unarmed Latino and was allowed to return to field work after a six weeks on probation.
The L.A. city attorney is reviewing the verdict and is “exploring the city’s options going forward,” spokesman Frank Mateljan said. The LAPD said in a statement it was working with the city attorney’s office.
The shooting took place in March 2010 on Vermont Avenue in Koreatown.
The officers drove up slowly behind Washington, who was walking alone on the sidewalk around midnight. Corrales told investigators that Washington appeared to reach for his waistband for what the officer believed was a weapon, according to the department’s internal review of the incident.
Corrales, who was in the passenger seat, fired once, striking Washington in the head. Diego left the vehicle, fired and missed, investigators concluded. Corrales and Diego worked in an antigang unit.
No weapon was found, but authorities said the officers feared for their lives because Washington did not respond to commands to raise his hands.
Smith said a video of the shooting showed Washington turning violently toward the officers.
After the shooting, Washington’s relatives and the American Civil Liberties Union called on the LAPD for more information to justify the shooting.
“You put officers on the streets to do a job, but they are not social workers,” Smith said, adding that officers then “get blamed for making spot decisions.”
In a 2010 audit of LAPD investigations into employee allegations of retaliation, the LAPD inspector general found that investigators routinely neglected to interview people accused of misconduct, or even name them in the investigations.
The inspector general at the time said the LAPD needed to do more to mediate workplace conflicts.