JURY AWARDS MAN $11 MILLION IN SAN DIEGO NEGLIGENCE CASE
By Noah Barron
Daily Journal Staff Writer

San Diego County Superior Court jurors have found the city of San Diego negligent for a police altercation that left a man with brain injuries and awarded him what is likely the largest police misconduct verdict in the city’s history.

The jury granted Pablo Gomez $11 million for the skull fractures and brain damage he received when he was tackled by Officer Joseph De Veaux in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter after leaving a bar in 2006, where he had been watching a football game.

However, the jurors decided that Gomez was 30 percent responsible for his injuries, and so the city will pay $8 million in damages.

Lawyers for the plaintiff, the city and a spokesman for the San Diego Police Officers Association all agreed that the verdict, even after the percentage reduction, is the largest of its kind against San Diego law enforcement.

Last week’s outcome was the culmination of a drawn-out legal battle that included an earlier trial that exonerated De Veaux of battery, but the jurors split 7-5 on the issue of negligence.

Judge Frederic Link declared a mistrial in the first trial, and the second round began on Aug. 21. Gomez v. Joseph De Veaux, GIC877892 (S.D. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 4, 2007).

According to the suit, Gomez, 28, who at the time was a patent file clerk at Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear in San Diego, was walking with friends in downtown San Diego on Jan. 4, 2006.

The three were intoxicated when two other men approached them, the suit says, and a fight broke out.

When De Veaux arrived on the scene, Gomez allegedly fled, and De Veaux yelled for him to stop. Gomez turned and De Veaux ran into him, knocking him down, the suit says.

At that point, the suit says, Gomez struck his head on the pavement and cracked his skull.

Gomez’s attorney, litigator J. Jude Basile of the Basile Law Firm in Cambria, said Gomez has undergone intense rehabilitation. He can read and take care of himself but will never run or play sports and is “a different person,” Basile said.

Basile alleged that De Veaux came at Gomez too fast and used unnecessary force because the fight between the men was not serious and already over when the officer arrived.

“This is something that shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

He said De Veaux, who came to the scene when other people on the street alerted him to the fight, never called for backup.

The lawyer said the officer, an accomplished sprinter, struck Gomez despite the fact that Gomez complied within seconds of being ordered to stop running.

“[De Veaux] immediately overreacted,” Basile said. “The community has to be able to trust the police.”

Dana Fox, of Lynberg & Watkins in Los Angeles, who was lead counsel for the city, and De Veaux, did not respond to messages seeking a comment. Co-counsel Barry Hassenberg, also of Lynberg & Watkins, declined to comment.

Deputy City Attorney Don Shanahan said the city’s insurer, AIG, hired Lynberg & Watkins because “they were more on the line than we were.”

Of the verdict, Shanahan said, “The jury made its decision, and I respectfully disagree.”

Shanahan said Gomez was given the order to stop running and did not comply.

“They bumped into each other, and the jury said it was negligence,” he said. He said the city likely will appeal.

De Veaux voluntarily resigned from the force earlier this year, according to attorneys, and is working in Iraq for a private contractor.

Lynberg & Watkins also represented the city of Coronado and an off-duty police officer in a civil case between former Chargers linebacker Steve Foley and Officer Aaron Mansker, who shot him and allegedly ended his NFL career in 2006. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum.

noah_barron@dailyjournal.com

This article appears on Page 1 of the Verdicts and Settlements