$70 million for lawsuit settlement by LA Police

The city will end up paying an estimated $70 million to settle lawsuits stemming from the Rampart corruption scandal that shook the Los Angeles Police Department, a city official said Thursday.

Since the allegations surfaced more than five years ago, 214 lawsuits have been filed by mostly drug dealers, gang members and other criminals who said they had been framed, shot or beaten by officers in the Rampart division’s anti-gang unit.

Twenty-seven claims were dismissed and eight are pending settlements, which are part of the $70 million total payout, said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

The scandal once involved the investigation of 82 incidents involving 50 officers and the reversal of more than 100 convictions tainted by police misconduct.

Racial profiling, excessive force and the Rampart scandal caused the federal government in 2001 to impose a consent decree on the department mandating reforms.

The payout is considerably less than the $125 million projected by then-City Attorney James Hahn in the early stages of the scandal. Hahn is now mayor of the city.

Despite the criminal backgrounds of many of the plaintiffs, city lawyers concluded when reviewing the records of the officers involved that more than three-fourths of the cases were too risky to let them proceed to trial.

“When you have a problem officer, it’s very difficult to go forward,” Chief Deputy City Attorney Terree A. Bowers told the Times. “This has got to be a wake-up call for the city. It could have been worse.”

The average settlement was $400,000 but 30 plaintiffs received $500,000 or more. Javier Francisco Ovando, a gang member who was shot by police and left paralyzed, received the largest settlement - $15 million.

He had been sentenced to 23 years in prison after two officers testified he was armed when he was shot. His conviction was eventually overturned.

More than 100 criminal convictions were overturned as a result of the scandal, and more than a dozen officers left the force, some after being fired and others resigning amid investigations of alleged misconduct.

Many of the misconduct allegations were made by ex-officer Rafael Perez, who later emerged as the main culprit after his accusations against other officers were largely disproved.

Prince Albert to take over his father’s duties

Prince Albert, 47, the only son of Prince Rainier and his late wife, American actress Grace Kelly is due to take his father’s place, as Rainier health was described as stable but fragile.

The palace has published vaguely worded health bulletins nearly every day since the prince was placed in intensive care on March 22.

The next health bulletin will be released in 48 hours, the palace added.

On Tuesday, the palace released a statement saying the 81-year-old Rainier was in stable but “very fragile” condition after three weeks in Monaco’s Cardio-Thoracic Center, including more than a week in intensive care.

Prince Albert of Monaco has taken over his ailing father’s duties, it was announced today.

The Council of the Crown decided that Prince Albert should temporarily take over as it was difficult for Prince Rainer to “exercise his high functions”, a statement from the palace said.

“From now, the regency is assured by His Serene Highness Prince Albert,” it said.

Rainier’s frail condition was underscored by Monaco’s decision to postpone a gathering of small European states’ parliaments at short notice.

“In today’s very painful circumstances and the lack of medical reassurances, the National Council considered it preferable to postpone the meeting of the Parliaments of Small European States which was scheduled to take place in Monaco on March 31 and April 1,” the Monaco parliament said in a statement dated March 29.

Representatives from San Marino, Malta, Cyprus, Andorra, Iceland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein had been due to attend.

Residents of this tiny Riviera principality remained anxious about the prince’s health.
“For us, it’s terrible. We have a knot in our throats even to talk about it,â€? said nurse Patrick Audoli, 43.

The ailing Rainier, who had ruled the tiny Mediterranean principality nestled on the edge of the French Riviera since 1949, has been hospitalized several times since 2002 for recurrent respiratory problems.

Terri Schiavo death ends the ongoing battle

Terri Schiavo, on her 14th day without food or water, has died at a Florida hospice. Her parents had requested to be at her bedside for her death.

David Gibbs, Schindler family Attorney: “Boby Schindler Jr., Terri’s brother and Father Pavone were with Terri up until 10 minutes before she passed.”

The spokesman for the Schindler family says the siblings were told to leave the room to allow a medical assessment and to allow a visitation from her husband, Michael Schiavo. After Schiavo had passed away, they were allowed to return to her side.

Michael Schiavo has not issued any statement since his wife’s death. For 7 years, Schiavo’s parents battled her husband to keep their severely brain-damaged daughter alive. That fight grew more intense when doctors removed her feeding tube under a state court order and the US Congress intervened.

Schiavo’s parents spent her last weeks in and out of court arguing their daughters feeding tube should be reinserted. In the end, state courts, federal courts and even the US Supreme Court, who refused to review the parents appeal, sided with Schiavo’s husband.

Michael Schiavo insisted his wife did not want to live in the persistent vegetative state doctors had diagnosed. Outside the hospice, there were prayers and tears. Terri Schiavo did not put her wishes in a living will, turning her family’s private fight into a very public feud.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined for the sixth time to intervene on behalf of her parents, who were seeking to re-attach their daughter’s feeding tube. (more…)

Europe and Canada to impose extra 15% import duty

The European Union and Canada plans to slap an extra 15 percent import duty on a range of U.S. goods over Washington’s failure to apply an international trade ruling against an anti-dumping law, that has handed companies including Timken Co. and U.S. Steel Corp. more than $1 billion in tariffs collected from foreign rivals.

The duty would hit imports including paper, agricultural, textile and machinery products from May 1, and affect slightly less than $28 million in trade, the European Commission said.

The Byrd Amendment, ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization, is designed to compensate U.S. industries hurt by foreign goods “dumped'’ at below-market prices. President George W. Bush has said the U.S. plans to abide by the WTO judgment.

The new European tariffs, worth about $28 million, add to trans-Atlantic trade tensions as the EU and U.S. battle over aid for aircraft makers Airbus SAS and Boeing Co., the EU challenges tax breaks for U.S. exporters worth $4 billion a year and the U.S. is fighting European resistance to new gene-engineered crops.

In his budget proposal to the U.S. Congress on Feb. 7, Bush called for repeal of the Byrd amendment and said changing the law could save the U.S. Treasury $1.6 billion in the next fiscal year.

Canada will impose a 15 percent surtax on U.S. live swine, cigarettes, oysters, and some fish beginning May 1, according to a Trade Ministry statement. The surtaxes combined will total C$14 million ($11.6 million) this year, it said.

“For the last four years, Canada and a number of other countries have repeatedly urged the United States to repeal the Byrd Amendment,'’ Trade Minister Jim Peterson said in the statement. “Retaliation is not our preferred option, but it is a necessary action.'’

U.S. makers of steel, ball bearings, honey and candles are the main beneficiaries of the Byrd Amendment, in force since 2000. Total payouts to the U.S. companies would rise as high as $1.6 billion this fiscal year unless the law is repealed, the EU says. (more…)