Government
Jun. 20, 2002
Jury Awards $1 Million in Hogtying Death
LOS ANGELES - Lawyers for Los Angeles County intend to appeal a jury's award of $650,000 to each of the parents of a man who died after sheriff's deputies hogtied him.
The jury found Monday that deputies were negligent when they restrained Dwayne Nelson, 41, during an arrest in 1998. While the county alleged that Nelson died as a result of having taken cocaine and having a pre-existing heart condition, Nelson's parents claimed their son suffocated under the weight of the deputies while they hogtied him.
The restraint involves cuffing the hands and feet together behind the back.
"We'll be doing post-trial motions, and assuming they're unsuccessful, we will be doing an appeal," Deputy County Counsel Dennis Gonzales said Tuesday.
Gonzales said the deputies restrained Nelson in an attempt to keep him from hurting himself after he kept kicking the back window of the patrol car in which he was being held. He had been arrested after allegedly shooting a gun near Imperial Highway and Normandie Avenue.
But Leo Terrell, who represented Nelson's mother, Lottie Nelson, said Nelson cooperated with officers. Key to the case, Terrell said, was a videotape that jurors watched which showed the arrest.
"Without the videotape, we would have lost," Terrell said.
Instead of being disciplined, deputies who were involved in the arrest received letters of commendation from their superiors for how they handled it, Terrell said.
In the case presided over by Judge David Minning, jurors awarded $1 million each to Lottie Nelson and Wallace Nelson but found Dwayne Nelson partly responsible for his own death. They set Nelson's level of responsibility - what is known as contributory negligence - at 35 percent. That reduced the award to $650,000 to each of his parents. Nelson v. County of Los Angeles, BC213704 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 19, 1999).
While Terrell was pleased with the verdict, he said he also was frustrated that he had to spend four years fighting the county.
"The only reason I beat the county is because I had the resources and I am a damn good attorney," he said. "Ninety percent of the time, the county wins these cases, and then there is a false impression that nothing is wrong."
Erin Carroll
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