Torrance Police to Pay $82,500 in Punitive Damages

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury added $82,500 in punitive damages on Wednesday to the $5.9-million judgment it awarded a San Pedro family last week after finding that Torrance police covered up for a colleague involved in a fatal 1984 traffic accident.

The additional award against Torrance Police Chief Donald Nash, Lt. Noel Cobbs, who recently retired, Sgt. Rollo Green, Sgt. Michael Paolozzi and Officers Steven Burke and Richard Silagy fell far short of the nearly $18 million in punitive damages requested by lawyers for the family.

But John Rastello, whose 19-year-old son, Kelly, died in the collision with Green, said he is happy with the outcome.

“I said five years ago that the money really didn’t matter,” Rastello said. “It is about time this was laid to rest and that we go on to something else.”

The trial against the county’s third-largest police department lasted for seven weeks. Rastello’s lawsuit alleged that Green caused the fatal collision by driving drunk and making an illegal left turn and that fellow officers concealed his responsibility as part of a pattern of whitewashing police misconduct.

Rastello’s lawyers said Green was given special treatment in several respects: the off-duty sergeant was not given a blood alcohol test; a field supervisor used one of the department’s few untaped phone lines to report in from the scene of the accident; Green was not arrested but was driven home by police, and Green was given just one field sobriety test more than an hour after the accident.

The defense argued that Kelly Rastello caused his own death by speeding and failing to apply both brakes on his motorcycle.

The jury ordered Nash--Torrance’s police chief for 19 years--to pay the bulk of the punitive damages, $50,000.

“We really held Nash and the city more culpable for condoning that type of activity and just looking the other way,” said juror Julie Nameth, a homemaker. The other officers “are guys who we felt got caught up in a cover-up, and some of them maybe even reluctantly.”

Cobbs was ordered to pay $10,000, Paolozzi $7,500, Green $5,000, Burke $5,000 and Silagy $5,000.

Jurors said they agreed with the plaintiff’s contention that the Torrance Police Department routinely condoned misdeeds by officers.

“Misconduct was overlooked,” said foreman Gerald Clare, a psychotherapist. “Or when it was found there was just a slap on the wrist.”

Despite the relatively small punitive damage awards, jurors said their verdict was intended to send a message. Said Nameth: “If they don’t make some changes from the top, it would bother me.”

But jurors decided they did not want to “break” the police officers financially, Clare said. “What they did we felt was wrong, but it wasn’t monstrous. And clearly everyone on both side was distressed by the entire case.”

Nash said he and his officers still believe that they did nothing wrong.

“We have pride in our Police Department,” Nash said, “and in our officers. We think we run a clean Police Department and that we did the right thing on the night of the accident.”

Jurors were presented with a very limited view of the department and did not hear about many cases in which Torrance officers have received severe punishments for misconduct, Nash said.

Nash said he does not see the department changing policy because of the verdict or revelations during the trial.

Defense lawyers are expected to appeal.

Brian Panish, one of Rastello’s attorneys, had told the jury that it should determine punitive damages of three times the original verdict of $5.9 million.

Such an award would send “a loud and resounding message to all police officers and government officials that this type of conduct will not be tolerated,” Panish said.

“This case means more than just the Rastello family and what they did to them for five years,” Panish said. “This case needs to send a message to all police officers nationwide.

“You have a unique opportunity to break the code of silence,” he said. “To break the police fraternity.”

Defense attorney Casey Yim asked for compassion. He said that most of the officers are fathers, who could not afford to pay huge damage awards.

“If you annihilate these individuals, if you wipe them out, you’ve got to ask what kind of a message that will send to the community,” Yim said. “Who will want to be a police officer?”

Yim argued that the officers’ reputations have already been destroyed during the trial and that the $5-million judgment “hung like a stone” around their necks.

It is possible, however, that the officers will not have to pay any of the damages themselves.

Torrance police officers are routinely insured for any actions they take while on duty, Torrance City Manager LeRoy Jackson said in an interview before the verdict. If the city and its insurance company agree to follow that policy, the insurer would pay the $5,525,000 in damages ordered last week against the city, Nash and five officers.