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Policemen Awarded $2.4 Mln in California Beating Case<br><br>
Wed Jan 19, 3:48 PM ET<br><br>
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two police officers involved in a videotaped
<br>
beating of a black teenager that sparked nationwide outrage have been
<br>
awarded $2.4 million by a Los Angeles jury that found they were <br>
unfairly disciplined.<br><br>
The larger jury award of $1.6 million went to Jeremy Morse who was <br>
fired from the Inglewood police force immediately after the 2002 <br>
incident in which he was captured on an amateur videotape slamming a 16
<br>
year-old onto a squad car and punching him in the jaw after a routine
<br>
vehicle stop.<br><br>
The incident, shown repeatedly on nationwide television, had echoes of
<br>
the infamous beating by four Los Angeles police of black motorist <br>
Rodney King that in 1992 sparked some of the worst urban rioting in
<br>
U.S. history.<br><br>
Morse, who is white, sued the mostly black city of Inglewood alleging
<br>
he was disciplined unfairly because a black officer who was also at the
<br>
scene, but never charged, was suspended for only five days. He claimed
<br>
racial discrimination and on Tuesday was awarded the damages.<br><br>
Morse had been tried twice on assault charges but the jury deadlocked
<br>
both times and prosecutors dropped the case a year ago.<br><br>
His partner, Bijan Darvish, was suspended for 10 days and later <br>
acquitted of filing a false police report over the incident. Darvish
<br>
claimed his suspension was excessive and was awarded $811,000
damages.<br><br>
Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn was astonished by the verdict. "How
do <br>
you give a man who was suspended for only 10 days more than $800,000?
<br>
Morse was fired, but $1.6 million?" Dorn told the Los Angeles
Times.<br><br>
Lawyer Paul Coble, who represented Inglewood in the case, said he would
<br>
meet with city officials next week to consider appealing either the
<br>
verdict or the size of the award.<br>
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