Los Angeles jury awards three black men $611,000 in brutality case against Sheriff's Dept

Jet, August 14, 1995

In what is believed to be the first time a jury has held a police department's top officials responsible for using excessive force, three Black men were awarded $611,000 against the Los Angeles County Sheriff'sDepartment in Lynwood, CA.

The U.S. District court jury found Sheriff Sherman Block and two of his top aides accountable for the use of excessive force by their deputies. After deliberating three days, the jury ordered the county to pay $452,000 to Darren Thomas, 34, of South Central LA, the lead plaintiff in the suit; $85,000 to Michael Sterling, 29, of Lynwood; and Kevin Marshall, 31, of Oakland.

The suit stemmed from an April 1990 incident when the trio, who had returned from a funeral, got into a fight with sheriff's deputies who forbade them to drink beer on the front yard of a Lynwood home they were visiting.