Award OKd for Man Injured by Deputy Named in Scandal

The Los Angeles County Claims Board has approved payment of $275,000 to a convicted drug dealer seriously injured in 1985 by a deputy implicated in the Sheriff’s Department money-skimming scandal.

The award, which still must be approved by the Board of Supervisors, would be the first civil payout by the county involving 18 sheriff’s narcotics officers suspected of stealing money during drug raids, county lawyers said.

Since the scandal surfaced Sept. 1, nine criminal cases against alleged drug traffickers also have been dismissed or withdrawn because the suspended officers were key witnesses and their credibility was damaged.

County lawyers said they recommended settlement of the lawsuit of James Dunn, 43, in part because suspended Deputy Daniel M. Garner was one of two officers who struck Dunn on the head with flashlights during a raid on his South Whittier home.

“Everything we know about these (deputies) is considered,” said Robert Ambrose, chief of civil litigation for the county counsel’s office.

Ambrose refused to identify Garner by name or answer questions about the deputy’s role in the March 11, 1985, raid. Dunn’s lawyers said a confidentiality agreement with the county prevented them from discussing the case.

Lloyd W. Pellman, the county counsel’s representative on the Claims Board, would not characterize the importance of the deputies’ credibility in the decision Monday to settle the case.

Pellman did say that the severity of the injuries to Dunn “was an extremely important factor. We saw photographs of injuries (Dunn) had to his head and to his body.”

Dunn’s ribs were broken and his head cut and bruised during a confrontation with two deputies after they served a search warrant on his home, according to a summary prepared for the Claims Board. The deputies are identified in Dunn’s lawsuit as Garner and Deputy John R. Hurtado.

Dunn received a concussion and his doctors say he suffered permanent injuries to his head, ear and brain stem that require him to walk with a cane and cause him to suffer from dizziness, county lawyers said.

Dunn claimed he was handcuffed when struck by the deputies.

Attorneys for the deputies said in court documents that the officers struck Dunn only after he “repeatedly refused or defied lawful orders, challenged them to fight, used vile, provocative and obscene language and used physical force against (them).”

Garner and Hurtado have said that they struck Dunn with their flashlights only after he reached for a shotgun. No mention of the weapon was made in the county’s case summary.

Dunn pleaded no contest to possessing cocaine and marijuana for sale and was placed on three years probation, county lawyers said.

Witnesses against the deputies included Dunn’s wife, two other people arrested at the scene and neighbors, county lawyers said.

Ambrose said that, aside from questions of deputy credibility, evidence showed that “there were actions (by the deputies) that shouldn’t have taken place.”

Neither Garner nor Hurtado would comment on the case.