Suit Against Police Dept. Reinstated

A civil rights suit filed against the Anaheim Police Department by a man who held police at bay for 10 hours before he was arrested was ordered back into Los Angeles federal court by a three-judge appellate panel Monday.

Russell J. Sanders and his parents filed the suit against the Police Department and the Anaheim City Council in June, 1984, a year after a police SWAT team surrounded the family’s Tippetts Street home for 10 hours while Russell Sanders was barricaded inside.

Sanders, who police said was distraught over a former girlfriend, finally surrendered to police and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly firing a .22-caliber pistol at his brother.

Family Sues Police

Sanders and his parents later sued Anaheim Police Chief Jimmie D. Kennedy, 34 police officers and five Anaheim City Council members, claiming that the city violated their constitutional rights. The suit further seeks reimbursement, saying that officers broke windows, damaged the exterior of vehicles and ransacked the home during the 1983 incident.

U.S. District Judge David W. Williams dismissed the Sanders’ suit against the city in July, 1984. However, the family appealed the dismissal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in their favor and sent the case back to the lower court for trial.

Shirley A. Ostrow, a Los Alamitos attorney representing the family, said the opinion was a victory for her clients.

“They (the police) brought in SWAT teams and really attacked the house,” said Ostrow. “Meanwhile, he was in the house not endangering anybody.”

Sanders, who is now 26, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Jeffrey M. Epstein, a Los Angeles attorney representing the Anaheim council members and police officers, said the panel did not rule on the merits of the case but merely said the “complaint should not be dismissed at this point.”

Court Error Cited

Epstein said he could not comment further until he received a copy of the opinion. However, he said it will probably be a year before the case goes to trial.

The appeals panel said the district court erred by dismissing the family’s complaint.

“During the siege, helicopters swooped over the house at low altitudes,” the opinion said. “At the end of the siege, marbles or other missiles were thrown or shot by slingshots at the residence. Numerous windows were broken, stucco was chipped from the house, and the garage door was so badly broken that it had to be replaced.”

According to the opinion, “police entered the Sanders dwelling without a warrant, searched its interior and, in doing so, ransacked the interior by opening drawers and dumping out their contents.”