A jury has exonerated three Los Angeles police officers and the city in a lawsuit filed by a disabled woman who alleged her civil rights were violated and that unreasonable force was used against her during a physical confrontation with the officers in South Los Angeles in 2015.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for about 1 1/2 days before rejecting on Feb. 15 the claims of 40-year-old Zennea Foster.
“I guess that means the cops can do anything they want,” Foster’s grandmother, Lillie Foster, said as her granddaughter was consoled by one of her supporters outside the courtroom.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Carl Douglas, said in his final argument that his client was not a threat to Officers Andre Burton, Marcus Moreno and William Chamberlain, nor a fourth officer who was previously dismissed as a defendant. He said they used more force than necessary to restrain Foster, who was born with Erb’s palsy, which limits the use of her left arm and hand.
“Four officers trained to kill were unable to handcuff one woman with one arm,” Douglas said.
But Deputy City Attorney Geoffrey Plowden maintained that the plaintiff struck Burton first and that he hit her back in self-defense, all the while trying to avoid slashes from her long fingernails.
Plowden told jurors the officers were unaware at the time that Foster had a disability.
“It’s undisputed the officers didn’t know she had the disability,” Plowden said. Plowden also contended that Foster has far more use of her left arm than Douglas acknowledged.
Foster acknowledged during her testimony that she slugged Burton, saying it was “a natural reaction after he hit me.”
Foster said Burton retaliated by hitting her again. She said that after she fell to the ground, other officers joined the melee and began kicking her. She testified she additionally felt pain to her back caused by the officers striking her with either their knees or their elbows.
Douglas alleged his client’s legs were hobbled and that she endured the worst beating of a female by police that he has seen in his 37 years as a lawyer.
According to Foster, tenants called her to a home she owns on South Denker Avenue on Feb. 4, 2015, where a stabbing occurred during a dispute between two of her tenants.
About eight officers arrived about 10:45 p.m., some armed with shotguns, she said. They handcuffed her boyfriend, who arrived at the scene separately from her, and towed his motorcycle even though he had nothing to do with the stabbing, Foster said.
Foster said she contacted the tenant being sought for the stabbing and offered her phone to one of the officers so he could talk to the man, but Burton intervened and struck her.
Douglas said Foster had no reason to be the aggressor and hit Burton first.
“This one-armed woman is not going to strike a cop holding a phone and a key in her (good) hand,” Douglas said.
But Plowden said Foster intervened at a time the officers did not know whether the assailant might still have been in the house and perhaps armed with a knife or gun.
“This particular situation was extremely dangerous,” Plowden said.
Foster filed her lawsuit in May 2016.
