Federal Judge Upholds $6.6M Verdict Against LAPD Officers Who Detained LA Veteran
A federal judge refused to overturn a $6.6M jury verdict against Los Angeles and two LAPD officers who unlawfully detained veteran Slade Douglas after a VA crisis hotline call.
Federal Court Affirms $6.6 Million Award Against LAPD After Veteran's Wrongful Detention
A federal judge has upheld a $6.6 million jury verdict against the city of Los Angeles and two of its police officers following the unlawful detention of a Black veteran, Courthouse News Service reports. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued her ruling on Aug. 26, rejecting efforts by the city and officers to overturn the verdict, order a new trial, or reduce the damages.
The case centers on Slade Douglas, a middle-aged Black man and veterans' advocate, who was speaking with a Department of Veterans Affairs crisis hotline operator on Aug. 27, 2019. Frustrated by repeated interruptions, Douglas warned he would hang up — and did. The operator then contacted the Los Angeles Police Department to conduct a welfare check at his home.
Douglas welcomed officers Jeffrey Yabana and Jeremy Wheeler into his residence and told them he posed no threat to himself or anyone else. According to Douglas, the officers responded with condescension and provocation. When he asked them to leave, they refused.
Douglas then called 911 to report the officers' conduct. He says Yabana and Wheeler responded by detaining him, mocking him, and searching his home. He was tightly cuffed to a stretcher and transported to a hospital, where he alleges he was injected with sedatives and had bodily samples forcibly extracted against his will — in an effort to "find something," as he described it in his complaint. Douglas alleged that the officers had retaliated against him for attempting to report their behavior, in violation of his civil rights.
The jury sided with Douglas, awarding $6 million in damages as part of the overall $6.6 million verdict. The city and the two officers challenged the outcome on multiple grounds, arguing the jury's verdict was inconsistent, that the damages award lacked evidentiary support, and that certain comments by Douglas's attorney during trial were inflammatory.
Frimpong rejected each of these arguments. "Defendants have not demonstrated that the jury's $6 million damages award is at odds with a permissible interpretation of the facts in evidence," she wrote.
The judge did agree with the city on one narrow point — that the jury had been incorrectly instructed on Douglas's negligent supervision claim. However, this finding did not alter the final dollar amount. Because the parties had jointly agreed that damages should not be calculated separately for each claim, the overall award remained intact.
"Although the negligent supervision claim fails, the jury's damages award stands and no new trial is needed on that claim or on damages," Frimpong wrote.
A separate and significant controversy emerged in the lead-up to trial. On the eve of proceedings in 2024, the city requested a continuance after disclosing that Officer Wheeler had previously undisclosed substance-related issues — issues the city had long known about. The disclosure prompted Douglas's legal team to reopen discovery and file new negligence claims, arguing that the city had been aware of Wheeler's condition before the 2019 incident and had allowed him to remain on active duty regardless.
The city contended that these claims had not been fairly raised in Douglas's amended complaint, asserting that the substance abuse had only come to light in 2024. Frimpong pushed back. "The later allegations merely confirm the city's prior knowledge of Officer Wheeler's serious substance abuse and mental illness," wrote the Biden appointee.
Attorney Paul Hoffman, who represented Douglas at trial, told jurors that the city had prioritized shielding Wheeler over protecting the public. "Whose interest is really protected here? Not Mr. Douglas's. Not yours, not mine. Not the community's," Hoffman said. "The city chose confidentiality over your safety. They chose to protect Officer Wheeler over protecting Mr. Douglas, over protecting you, and it's your ability to hold them accountable."
Frimpong ruled these remarks were not inflammatory but rather a continuation of testimony already on the record concerning the city's confidentiality policies around officer fitness.
Attorney Na'Shaun Neal, also representing Douglas, said the city had been informed of Wheeler's substance abuse and mental health issues well before the detention took place — and had failed to act. Neal said Douglas had originally contacted the VA crisis hotline after experiencing discriminatory treatment, only to become the target of what he described as a swatting incident carried out at the direction of VA officers.
In his complaint, Douglas alleged that the handcuffs had caused nerve damage to his wrists and that a catheter inserted without his consent had led to a penile infection. He says hospital staff assisted the officers over his repeated objections. He was subsequently released from the hospital and returned home.
"I believe what this does is affirm that the jury got it right the first time and that there was no error," Neal told Courthouse News in a phone interview. "Mr. Douglas suffered from police conduct. The jury heard the evidence and made a determination that they forced him to go to the hospital under false pretenses."
A spokesperson for the city of Los Angeles did not respond to requests for comment.
Source: Courthouse News Service