Walnut : Family’s Bias Claim Rejected

The City Council last week rejected the $300,750 claim of a black family that alleges false arrest and imprisonment and racial discrimination in a June 25 incident involving the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the city’s law enforcement contractor.

In their claim, which was also filed against the Sheriff’s Department, Walter Bates, his wife, Brenda, and their two children allege they were “humiliated, embarrassed and emotionally devastated” after being removed from their home, handcuffed and interrogated by deputies during a late-night search of their neighborhood for two robbery suspects.

Terry Nelson, the Bateses’ attorney, said the deputies targeted the family because they are the only blacks living in the mostly white neighborhood. The two robbery suspects, who were reported to have abandoned a vehicle in the area, also are black.