$33 Million Verdict for Physician Handcuffed During LAPD Traffic Stop in Budget Rental Car

On February 9, 2001, Dr. Angelo Gousse, a board-certified urological surgeon practicing in Miami, picked up a red Ford Taurus from Budget Rent-A-Car at Los Angeles International Airport. Budget had attached license plates registered to a different, stolen vehicle. Dr. Gousse had no knowledge of the discrepancy.

Around 2:18 a.m., LAPD officers on the Santa Monica Freeway ran the plates and received a hit indicating a stolen car. They initiated a high-risk felony stop, calling in helicopter support. Officers ordered Dr. Gousse to the pavement and handcuffed him. He and his attorneys maintained at trial that the officers' actions reflected racial profiling of a Black man driving through Los Angeles late at night. Dr. Gousse said the handcuffs were applied so tightly they caused nerve injuries to his hands. He was taken to the Rampart Division station and held for roughly two hours before the plate mismatch was identified and he was released.

GBW's Browne Greene led the trial team. The complaint alleged civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, civil battery, false arrest, and negligence against both the City and Budget. After three weeks of testimony before Judge Elizabeth A. Grimes, the jury deliberated two days and returned a verdict of $33,224,378. The breakdown included $8.29 million for lost earning capacity, $6.2 million for past noneconomic damages, $16.5 million for future noneconomic damages, and $2 million for Dr. Gousse's wife on a loss-of-consortium claim. The jury apportioned 57 percent of liability to Budget and 43 percent to the City of Los Angeles. The civil rights count against the City did not carry; the verdict rested on negligence.

Judge Grimes subsequently granted a defense motion for new trial on damages, ruling the award was "so staggeringly disproportionate to the injuries suffered that the results shock the conscience." She pointed to three negative nerve-conduction tests that undermined the claimed brachial plexus injury and found the future lost-earning-capacity figures unsupported by the evidence. The California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, affirmed that ruling on April 10, 2007 (Case No. B174896), sending the damages question back for retrial.

At the time the jury returned its verdict in late 2003, the $33.2 million figure was reported as one of the largest negligence verdicts against the LAPD on record.