LOS ANGELES COUNTY - News from Feb. 10, 1993
Driver Awarded $24,000 in Unlawful Handcuffing
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant was ordered this week to pay $24,000 for unlawfully handcuffing a motorist after a 1990 traffic accident in Diamond Bar, according to the lawyer for the motorist.
Patrick S. Smith, who represented Elijah Bradley Harris, said his client was involved in a traffic accident on July 28, 1990. He added that witnesses said Harris was not at fault in that accident, but Sgt. Kenneth Cunningham, who arrived at the scene to break up an argument between the two drivers, handcuffed Harris and not the other man. Harris is black and the other motorist was a white man driving an expensive car, Smith said.
Harris sued for unlawful handcuffing and a federal jury in Los Angeles ruled in his favor. Smith said Harris was awarded $8,000 in compensatory damages and $16,000 in punitive damages.
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