Michael Connelly - Crime Beat - A Decade Of Covering Cops And Killers

City attorneys, who had argued that the fee award should be about $216,000, said they considered it a victory that Yagman received much less than he asked for, but Yagman said he was satisfied with the amount. A decision has not been made by the city on whether to appeal the decision. After a three-month trial, the surviving robber and the families of the three dead men won a $44,000 damage award against Gates and the nine officers, all members of the department’s Special Investigations Section. The plaintiffs maintained that the officers violated the robbers’ civil rights by opening fire on them without cause, and that Gates’ leadership fostered such excessive force.

The determination of legal fees by U.S. District Judge

J. Spencer Letts on Friday could widen the battle between Yagman and the council over who will pay the lawyers’ fees. Although the jury had urged that Gates and the officers pay the $44,000damages personally, the council earlier this year voted to pay the awards from the city treasury.

Yagman said Tuesday that the legal fees awarded in the case should also be personally paid by Gates and the officers. Under federal law, an attorney who brings a successful civil rights case to trial must be paid by the defendants, with a judge determining the amount after hearing arguments from both sides.

“We have no judgment against the city,” Yagman said. “We have a judgment against nine SIS officers and Gates. They should pay it. Why should the taxpayers pay?”

Yagman said that if the council pays the $378,000from city coffers, it will provide him with new ammunition in another lawsuit stemming from the same police shooting.

The second case, filed on behalf of a daughter of one of the dead robbers, names council members as defendants as well as the police. Yagman argued that council members should be held responsible for the officers’ actions on the grounds that their decision to pay the damages in the first case in effect condoned the police misconduct that the jury found.

Yagman has contended that each time the council members vote to shield police officers from personal financial penalties in civil brutality suits they strengthen his argument that they are promoting police brutality and should also be personally liable for damages.

The second case has not yet been scheduled for trial. But Letts last week refused to dismiss the council members as defendants, rejecting the city attorney’s argument that they are automatically immune from civil liability for their official actions.

Deputy City Atty. Annette Keller said council members don’t have a choice over whether to pay such fees.

“It is part of the legal obligation of the city to defend employees sued for action taken in the course and scope of their employment,” Keller said. “We are obligated to pay any judgment for attorney fees. It is not an issue for the council.”

Yagman said his proposed fee was simply a “wish list” and that he was pleased with Letts’ ruling. “This is a lot of money and I am happy to get it,” Yagman said. In a 24-page order outlining his decision on fees, Letts praised Yagman for taking on the case that he characterized as “peculiarly undesirable” because the plaintiffs were a convicted robber and the families of robbers.

A Times investigation of the SIS four years ago spawned criticism that members of the unit trailing people with long criminal records often watched violent crimes take place without making a move to stop them so that the criminals could be arrested on the most serious charges possible, carrying more severe sentences.

In the McDonald’s case, members of the unit followed the robbers to the restaurant and watched as they broke in and robbed the lone employee inside. She was left physically unhurt but is also suing the officers, claiming that the incident was handled negligently.

ROOKIE OFFICER DIES IN ROOKIE OFFICER DIES IN STRUGGLE FOR GUN

LOS ANGELES TIMES

June 8, 1988

Arookie Los Angeles police officer, on street patrol less than three months, was fatally shot Tuesday during a struggle for his gun with a 16-year-old burglary suspect he confronted on a North Hollywood street, police said.

The teen-age gunman, Robert Steele of North Hollywood, was later tracked by police dogs to the attic of a nearby vacant house, where he was shot to death by four officers after he repeatedly attempted to reach for the revolver he had taken from the slain police officer, Cmdr. William Booth said.

A 19-year-old accomplice in the burglary was captured, police said.

Officer James Beyea, 24, was pronounced dead at 1:28

a.m. at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, less than an hour after he was shot in the head and leg, apparently with his own gun, Booth said.

Beyea and Officer Ignacio Gonzalez, 44, an 18-year veteran who was Beyea’s training officer, had answered a

12:20 a.m. burglary alarm call at an electronics store at 7261Lankershim Blvd.

When the officers arrived at Alpha Electronics, Booth said, they found a door open and went inside to search. They found no one in the store but could not search one storage room that had been locked from the inside.

Shortly after they walked outside to wait for the owner of the business, who had a key to the storage room, the burglar alarm went off again and the officers saw one person running from the rear of the building.

They quickly returned to their patrol car and drove around the block in an attempt to cut the suspect off, Booth said.

“Then they split up,” the police spokesman said. “Beyea went on foot and Gonzalez stayed in the car. They thought this would be the best way to go after the suspect.”

Beyea caught up with the suspect on Hinds Avenue, just north of Wyandotte Street – about two blocks from the electronics store – and attempted to arrest him, Booth said. From the car, Gonzalez saw his partner and the suspect struggling for control of a gun.

“Gonzalez was about a block away when he saw the struggle,” Booth said. “As he went toward them, he heard and saw gunfire.”

Beyea fell to the ground, Booth said, and the suspect fired at Gonzalez as he approached. Gonzalez returned the fire, but neither was hit. The suspect then ran off while Gonzalez went to Beyea’s aid.

About 50 officers, assisted by a helicopter and seven police dogs, searched a 16-block area around the shooting site, Booth said. About 4:30a.m., one of the dogs led officers to a vacant house at 11828Runnymede St., about three blocks from where Beyea had been shot.

Officers entered the one-story house, located on a wooded lot, and found Steele hiding in a corner of the attic.

According to a police statement, Sgt. Gary Nanson, 34, and Officer John Hall, 41, climbed into the attic and ordered Steele to raise his hands. The teen-ager complied and told the officers that the man they wanted was hiding downstairs, police said, but then he reached to his side to grab a gun.

Hall fired one time and wounded Steele in the head, police said. Despite several warnings to stay still, Steele twice again attempted to pick the gun up and was fatally shot by Nanson and two other officers, who had also climbed into the attic, the statement said.

The gun retrieved from Steele’s side was Beyea’s service revolver, Booth said. Ballistics tests will be conducted to determine if it was the weapon used to kill the officer, he said.

No other weapon was found, police said, and no one else was found in the house.

But during a search of the area, officers found Alberto Hernandez, 19, hiding in bushes about a block from where Beyea was killed. He admitted taking part in the burglary and was arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.