The Region - News from July 15, 1985

Taxpayers can sue individual governmental officers who control public money for an accounting and repayment of public funds spent on illegal spying by the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien ruled. The decision came in a suit asking the court to order Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and other police officials to account for and refund to city coffers any public money spent since 1969 for monitoring people and groups engaged in nonviolent political, social and religious activities. A similar suit by 131 individuals and organizations represented by the American Civil Liberties Union was settled last year when the city paid those plaintiffs $1.8 million in attorneys fees and damages and revamped surveillance procedures. This suit differs from the ACLU case in that it seeks to hold individuals responsible for return of all illegally spent money to the city treasury, plaintiffs’ attorney Dan Stormer said.