CARLSBAD
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The city of Carlsbad has agreed to pay $105,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a couple who said they were falsely arrested and roughed up by two police officers responding to a noise complaint regarding a birthday party at their home in December 2006.
According to the suit filed in federal court, dentist Robert Rees was shot with a Taser several times, punched and had his arms and wrists twisted by Carlsbad police Officers Gerry Ellsworth and George Zavala.
Rees' wife, Liliana, was arrested on suspicion of resisting and obstructing an officer after she photographed the incident and tried to open the door of a police car to take a photo of her husband, the lawsuit said. She said she was slammed against the car.
A charge of resisting arrest was dismissed when Robert Rees pleaded guilty to a loud noise violation. The criminal case against his wife was dismissed.
As part of the settlement, which the City Council approved in a closed session April 8, the couple agreed to drop the lawsuit against the city.
Carlsbad officials said in the settlement document that the couple should call Police Chief Tom Zoll or a police captain if they feel they are being harassed by officers or are the target of retribution over the next six months.
Mitch Dean, a private attorney hired by the city to defend it, said in an interview yesterday that neither the officers nor the city admitted any liability in agreeing to the settlement. Further, the officers were not disciplined.
“Things happened so quickly,” Dean said. “(The officers) have to make a split-second judgment, and they did what they felt was necessary at the time.”
Rees said in the lawsuit that Ellsworth was “angry and rude from the beginning” of the encounter, which occurred shortly after 11 on the night Rees hosted a birthday party for his wife.
The doctor was told there was a complaint about loud noise and went to retrieve his glasses to read and sign a warning notice. Rees said Ellsworth yanked him from his front porch in an “unprovoked attack” as he was prepared to sign the complaint form.
“Handcuffs were clamped down on his wrists in an excessively tight manner despite Dr. Rees' pleas not to injure his hands as he works with his hands to make his living,” the lawsuit said.
Rees was shot multiple times with a Taser, including after he had been handcuffed.
According to the lawsuit, Rees suffered multiple bruises and scrapes, as well as severe pain and burns from the Taser shots.
Michael Marrinan, the Reeses' attorney, did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
