Judge upholds $6.6M verdict over LAPD detention of Los Angeles veteran

A federal judge upheld the bulk of a $6.6 million jury verdict against Los Angeles and two LAPD officers after veteran Slade Douglas was detained following a call he made to a VA crisis hotline. Douglas says officers Jeffrey Yabana and Jeremy Wheeler entered his home, became condescending, and after he called 911 on them, cuffed him to a stretcher, took him to a hospital, and had him sedated and forcibly sampled.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong found sufficient evidence for negligence-per-se and rejected the city's claims the verdict was inconsistent or unsupported, though she agreed jurors were wrongly instructed on a negligent-supervision claim — an error that left the damages untouched. The ruling also surfaced that the city knew of Officer Wheeler's undisclosed substance abuse and mental health issues well before the 2019 incident and kept him on duty anyway.

Douglas's attorney argued at trial the city protected the officer's confidentiality over public safety; the judge agreed that argument was fair comment, not inflammatory rhetoric. The city did not respond to requests for comment.

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