Gates Should Pay SIS Suit Damages, 3 on Council Say : Courts: Yaroslavsky, Ridley-Thomas and Galanter want to follow jury’s wishes that no taxpayer money be used in penalties for police slaying of three robbers.

Balking at the city’s traditional payment of legal damages won against police, three City Council members said Tuesday that taxpayers should not have to pay a $20,505 penalty assessed against Police Chief Daryl F. Gates in a civil rights case involving a police shooting that left three robbers dead.

City Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas said Gates should pay the punitive damages out of his own pocket to send a message through the department and to the next police chief that excessive force will not be tolerated. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said she also has been concerned about the city’s liability for police misconduct and felt taxpayers should be spared further costs.

“I’ve had enough,” Yaroslavsky said. “We are paying over $20 million this year in judgments and settlements where we’ve had officers engaged in excessive uses of force. . . . I don’t see why my hard-earned money should be spent to bail him out.”

In reaching their verdict Monday, jurors said they did not want taxpayers to pay the damages and felt that Gates should be held responsible for the actions of his officers. The 10-juror panel assessed $20,505 in damages against Gates personally and the balance of its $44,042 award against the nine officers in the Special Investigation Section involved in the Feb. 12, 1990, shooting outside a Sunland McDonald’s.

“I think the fact that the jury took the specific action of saying this isn’t the city’s fault is encouragement for the position that the city should not pay it,” Galanter said.

Ridley-Thomas agreed, saying: “The jurors are sending us a clear message, it seems to me, and that’s not to waste taxpayers’ money.”

Yaroslavsky, who heads the budget committee that will first consider paying the damages, said decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, depending on “what extent they were following orders from above or were themselves negligent.”

Gates, whose salary last year was $168,794, condemned the verdict and damages as sending a chilling message to officers in the field and police chiefs who can be held responsible for every action every officer takes.

“The real peril is not guns out there or any of that,” Gates said. “People who sit on juries are killing effective policing in this city. . . . Police chiefs cannot afford to allow officers to make judgments in the field when police chiefs cannot be there 24 hours a day. The chief is going to have to say, ‘Just don’t do it. Don’t get involved. Don’t engage.’ ”

The verdict’s immediate effect on the 21-officer SIS unit was unclear. Gates said he was very seriously reviewing the future of the unit, and Police Commission Chairman Stanley Sheinbaum said the commission may seek outside professional judgment before responding to the verdict.

Capt. Randy Mancini, the unit’s supervisor, said SIS was back in operation Tuesday after the long layoff caused by the trial, which required the daily attendance of the entire unit. He said the jury’s verdict and criticisms of SIS tactics will be evaluated in terms of whether methods used by the squad should change. “We will evaluate our tactics--we always do.”

The judgment was awarded following a four-month trial of a lawsuit contending that SIS officers used excessive force when they fired 35 times at four robbers after a holdup at a McDonald’s on Foothill Boulevard. The lawsuit named Gates as a defendant, contending that he condoned the excessive force used by his officers and was ultimately responsible for it.

Despite Yaroslavsky’s objection and the jury’s specific request that Gates and the officers pay the damages out of their paychecks, Deputy City Atty. Don Vincent, who defended Gates and the officers in the trial, said he believes the city should pay the damages.

“The officers did a good job,” Vincent said. “They responded in the line of duty and in a proper way. The outcome was unfortunate.”

Stephen Yagman, the attorney who won the damages for the surviving robber and the families of the three slain men, said he will attempt to block any move by the council to have the city foot the bill.

Times staff writers Rich Connell and Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.