Facts

Giovanni Ferdinand sued Officer Joseph Pollack, Sergeant Christopher Kunz [Erroneously sued as Sergeant Kuntz], Sergeant Morse, Officer Len Lai, Officer Regina Smith, Officer Brown, and the City of Los Angeles, in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred on Jan. 28, 2014 at around 9 a.m.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Defendant Pollack allegedly pulled plaintiff over illegally at a checkpoint-style operation at the corner of Venice Blvd. and National Blvd. The officer made plaintiff wait about 10 minutes and thereafter issued plaintiff a citation with a copious amounts of writing. When asked about the writing, defendant became irritated and, as plaintiff was signing the citation, the officer violently grabbed plaintiff's wrist and pulled her in an attempt to extract her from her vehicle through her partially opened window. Plaintiff, who was seat belted, screamed in pain and in fear of the officer. The officer then proceeded to arrest her for no apparent reason by yanking on plaintiff, who was still belted, and repeatedly ramming her head against the doorjamb of her vehicle. The officer finally realized that he should unfasten plaintiff's seat belt and did so. He then dragged plaintiff towards the back of her vehicle where he was then joined by other officers. They then proceeded to batter plaintiff during the arrest. The officer claimed plaintiff was being arrested for trying to stab him with a pen, an allegation plaintiff denied as being completely made up and quite impossible, physically. Plaintiff was then booked for assault with a deadly weapon and taken to the station for further questioning. At that point, plaintiff was suffering from spasms and had issues walking. However, she was offered no help by defendants. Plaintiff thereafter sued defendants for violation of her civil rights under Section 1983 and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Officer Pollack, Officer Lai, Officer Brown and Officer Smith were monitoring the intersection of Venice Blvd. and National Blvd. due to numerous complaints of motorists violating California Vehicle Code 22101(d), proceeding straight through a left-turn only lane. Officer Pollack flagged the plaintiff into a strip-mall parking lot at the corner of Venice and National after observing her commit the violation. Officers Lai, Brown and Smith were in the process of issuing citations to other motorists in the same parking lot when plaintiff was flagged down by Officer Pollack.

Defense contended that plaintiff became increasingly agitated after she was pulled over and the citation was written. Immediately after plaintiff signed the citation, she changed her grip of the pen to an overhand grip with the pointy portion of the pen protruding out of the bottom. She then snatched her drivers' license from the citation binder in an angry manner, drew her right hand back up to her right shoulder and canted her body to the left as if she were preparing to stab Officer Pollack.

Defense contended that Officer Pollack, in order to defend himself from being stabbed, attempted to grab plaintiff's right wrist. As he did this, plaintiff raised her left arm into Officer Pollack's path and blocked his ability to grab her right arm. Plaintiff then struggled to free her left wrist. Officer Pollack then opened the door and tried to remove plaintiff from the vehicle in order to effect the arrest. Plaintiff resisted Officer Pollack's attempt to place her under arrest, so Officer Pollack grabbed her right wrist and assisted her out of the vehicle. Medical evidence and photographs taken of plaintiff shortly after the incident demonstrate her head never hit any portion of the vehicle.

Defendants disputed liability and argued that the force used by Officer Pollack was reasonable and necessary given the threat he perceived. Officer Pollack's fear of being stabbed with a pen was particularly heightened because just six months earlier another motorist had attempted to stab a different officer with a pen after signing a traffic citation.

Result

The city agreed to settle the dispute for $350,000.

Other Information

Officer Pollack passed away shortly after the case was filed, before he was able to be deposed. FILING DATE: Sept. 11, 2014.