A man who was clubbed by Vallejo police while trying to walk away from them in 2003 is entitled to $50,000 in damages plus legal fees, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday in rejecting officers’ arguments that the damages should be slashed because the city later filed for bankruptcy, the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday. Vallejo’s 2008 bankruptcy, California’s largest municipal insolvency in 15 years, left its creditors with only 20 to 30 cents for every dollar they were owed. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said that Jason Deocampo’s suit and the jury’s verdict were aimed at the officers who injured him, not the city that employed them. Deocampo was also awarded at least $400,000 for his legal fees, a sum that might increase by another $100,000 for costs of the appeal.
