The $6.5 million awarded Friday to the family of a man killed by Long Beach police officers in 2010 will be paid entirely by the City and its insurance policy and not from the two officers against whom part of the lawsuit was waged.

Relatives of Douglas Zerby had been asking for as much as $21.5 million in their combined suit against the individual officers as well as the City, which included both civil, state and federal claims. Jurors found that the officers Victor Ortiz and Jeffrey Shurtleff violated Zerby’s 4th Amendment rights, that their actions were a substantial cause of his death and acted with malice or reckless disregard for his life when they shot at him multiple times without warning after he supposedly made a sudden movement while holding a pistol-grip water nozzle that was mistaken for a gun. The jury also found that Zerby, who was highly intoxicated at the time, was negligent, but that his actions did not contribute to his death.

{loadposition latestnews}According to Monte Machit, who represented the City during the three-week trial, because the police officers are indemnified by the City, under government code, all money awarded to the plaintiffs must come from the City.

“The $6.5 million involves the City,” Machit told the Post. “But the city also has an insurance company [that will pay for] a certain amount, so the insurance will take care of some of that.”

Attorneys for both sides worked out an agreement after the verdicts that would make officers Ortiz and Shurtleff personally liable for $5,000 apiece in punitive damages in addition to the $6.5 million, but Machit says his team is already negotiating about waiving that.

The lawsuits were filed after the the Los Angeles County District Attorney concluded in November 2011 that the shooting of 35 year-old Zerby–who was sitting out front of a friend’s house in Belmont Shore when the incident began–was justified and the officers had acted lawfully and in self defense. Though those original suits included claims against the police chief individually as well as the police department, both were dismissed and the case that eventually went to trial was against only the police officers individually and the City.

“The plaintiffs attorneys tried to sue the Long Beach Police Department, but the correct entity is City of Long Beach,” said Machit. “The police department is a subsidiary department and can’t be separately sued just like parks and recreation can’t be separately sued. The plaintiffs wanted to include as many responsible parties…[but] eventually, the defendents got whittled away.”

Of the $6.5 milllion awarded to the Zerby family, $2 million will go to Zerby’s father, Mark Zerby, $1 million to his mother, Pam Amici, and $3.5 million to his 10-year-old son, River. Attorneys for Zerby’s family will also be petitioning for their fees, which could be more than $1 million, attorney Dale Galipo said.

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