Santa Clara County will pay nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club after police shot and killed three guard dogs during raids of the group's headquarters and suspected members' homes.
The county Board of Supervisors approved the $990,000 settlement in a closed session Monday. The decision came two months after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the county's arguments that sheriff's deputies should be immune from liability in the case.
The San Jose Police Department also was named in the suit because its officers shot the dogs, but the city hasn't worked out an agreement with club members. City Attorney Rick Doyle said the case may go to trial.
Lower court judges ruled that actions of the deputies and San Jose police officers during the January 1998 were unreasonable, most of the evidence obtained was unnecessary and the officers did nothing to avoid killing the animals. A lawyer for club members says a lot of property was destroyed in the raids and some evidence was kept for more than a year.
Ninety officers raided the club's San Jose headquarters and nine homes of suspected members to gather evidence against suspected member Steve Tausan who was being held on murder charges in connection with an August 1997 killing at a strip club. Tausan was acquitted of all counts in 1999 after arguing the killing was in self-defense.
Nice work, guys! Details here from the San Francisco Chronicle.