Cops to Pay $85K in Brutality Case

Chula Vista to pay $85K over police brutality

The city of Chula Vista has agreed to pay $85,000 to a prison inmate who filed a police brutality lawsuit against the city in 2005.

City Attorney Bart Miesfeld said Tuesday that the city settled with Felix Espino Jr. earlier this month.

Espino sued in federal court alleging that at least 10 police officers arrested and beat him until he was in a coma for three days in 2005. Espino claims he was hit with a Taser 13 times.

Miesfeld says Espino is a career criminal who filed the lawsuit from prison while he was serving a four-year sentence.

He says the city settled rather than go to trial, because of budget constraints and because the 10 or 15 officers involved in Espino's arrest would have had to testify in court.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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