Jury Awards Zinzun $3.83 Million in Suit Against City and Assistant Police Chief

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury Friday awarded political activist Michael Zinzun $3.83 million in his defamation and civil rights lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles and Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon.

The jury, according to Judge Michael Berg, said it found “clear and convincing” evidence of malice by Vernon, who used a department computer to spread information against Zinzun during a 1989 municipal election in Pasadena. Berg asked the jury to return to court Monday to deliberate how much, if any, punitive damages should be awarded Zinzun.

The city is obligated to pay Friday’s award, because Vernon is an employee, but Vernon could be personally liable for punitive damages.

The verdict in the three-week trial comes a little more than a month after the Los Angeles City Council rejected a settlement offer of $450,000 to compensate the former Black Panther leader who claimed that his campaign for the Pasadena Board of Directors, now called the City Council, was devastated by Vernon’s actions.

Councilwoman Joy Picus called the size of the award “horrifying” and said the jury may have been influenced by “the atmosphere surrounding the Rodney King affair.” She said that Vernon and the city’s lawyers handling the case persuaded council members that the city had a good chance of winning because the only documents at issue were readily available to the public.

“I’m really shocked because I know that we were told by Chief Vernon and the attorneys that they thought their case was excellent,” Picus said.

Mike Qualls, a spokesman for City Atty. James K. Hahn, called the award “excessive” and said the case will be reviewed for possible appeal. “We were very concerned about this case and that’s why we wanted to settle it,” Qualls said.

City Councilman Zev Yaroslavky, the chairman of the council’s budget and finance committee, was one of the chief opponents of the settlement. Several weeks ago, he said, “If all Chief Vernon did was hand over a bunch of newspaper articles, then why should it cost the taxpayers $450,000? The public interest may be better served with a full trial, with the people being placed under oath and letting the chips fall where they may.”

After Friday’s verdict, Zinzun’s attorney recalled Yaroslavsky’s words.

“We now know where the chips have fallen--on the backs of the taxpayers as a result of the damage caused to Michael Zinzun caused by Chief Robert Vernon,” lawyer Dan Stormer said.

The verdict comes at a time when City Council members have raised questions about the escalating costs of police-related lawsuits after the March 3 Rodney G. King beating.

Stormer said the abuse Zinzun suffered was psychological, not physical. “Sometimes the impact of a psychological blow is less when you see something like a Rodney King incident,” he said.

Friday’s verdict follows by two weeks a record $8.75-million Superior Court jury award to a former Coliseum groundskeeper who was wounded and left paraplegic by an off-duty Los Angeles police officer in 1987. The two combined verdicts of $12.58 million exceed the record $11.3 million the city paid out to settle all police-related lawsuits last year.

During the trial, Zinzun claimed that Vernon leaked documents from the department’s anti-terrorist division. Vernon said he retrieved only public information supplied by a private computer service that specializes in providing electronic versions of newspaper articles and legal documents. A binder of documents submitted as evidence in the trial contained printouts of newspaper articles from 1980 to 1989.

Stormer said the way the material was obtained and released gave the impression that the anti-terrorist division kept a file on Zinzun.

But Deputy City Atty. Mary House said Vernon’s actions never labeled Zinzun a terrorist and that the information he gathered on the candidate was available to the public. She said that The Times and other newspapers misrepresented the public documents, which are readily available in the library, as anti-terrorist files.

Zinzun testified that he was humiliated and fearful after receiving numerous threatening phone calls following news reports about Vernon’s actions.

The award marked the third time that Zinzun has successfully sued police. In 1983, Zinzun played a central role in a $1.8-million lawsuit that resulted in the dismantling of the Police Department’s public disorder intelligence division, the forerunner of the anti-terrorist division. Zinzun also agreed to a $1.2-million settlement with the Pasadena police over a 1986 incident that left him permanently blind in one eye.

Key testimony in the most recent trial, Stormer said, was provided by Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell, a Harvard University professor of psychiatry, who told the jury that Zinzun suffered from symptoms similar to those she saw in Vietnam veterans and civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s. “He felt he put his family in jeopardy,” she testified.

Chief Daryl F. Gates, who was dismissed as a defendant in the case, testified that Vernon’s actions were inappropriate and he counseled the assistant chief, but gave no further discipline. Vernon was required to reimburse the department for the use of computer time.

“We are talking about a top executive who serves at my pleasure,” Gates testified, in explaining his decision to counsel Vernon. “It caused an appearance (of impropriety) that was difficult to correct.”

Vernon, a 28-year Pasadena resident, gave the files to his neighbor, former Pasadena City Director John Crowley.

Zinzun narrowly missed a runoff for the position on the Board of Directors to Chris Holden, son of Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, a strong supporter of the police.

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro said the award “certainly is” excessive. “I think it’s something we have to appeal,” Ferraro said. “These juries have got to start realizing that they’re paying these awards if they live in the city of Los Angeles.”

“I thought the amount was outrageous,” said Councilman Michael Woo, “but this must be the price the city has to pay for a mistake by Chief Vernon. This is an extremely grave error.”