Council Agrees to Pay $250,000 in Police Death Suits
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The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously agreed to pay $250,000 to end two lawsuits brought by the mother of a 55-year-old man who died after an altercation with Los Angeles police.
The award, which still must be approved by Mayor Tom Bradley and the plaintiff, includes $150,000 in damages ordered in May by a federal court jury that concluded that a police officer used excessive force in arresting Hugh Thaddeus Clark of South Los Angeles.
He died Jan. 10, 1984, two days after a fight with police officers, who arrested him on suspicion of public drunkenness near 50th Street and Broadway. Police had been called to the area by neighbors, who said Clark, armed with a knife, was chasing children. Clark’s mother, Goldie Dixon, sued the three arresting officers. A federal court jury found that one officer had used excessive force and awarded her $150,000 and unspecified attorneys’ fees.
She filed a second suit accusing police of covering up the circumstances of Clark’s death. The settlement came before that case went to trial.
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