$6.5-Million Settlement Expected in Police Suit

Attorneys today expect to sign a $6.5-million legal settlement, the largest in Torrance history, to resolve a 1984 lawsuit in which jurors concluded that Torrance police routinely conspired to protect their colleagues.

The proposed settlement would go to John Rastello of San Pedro, whose 19-year-old son, Kelly, died in an Aug. 30, 1984, traffic collision with off-duty Torrance Police Sgt. Rollo Green. A jury in 1989 awarded Rastello $5.5 million for his son’s death, and the judge in the case later ordered the city to pay $2.1 million more in attorney fees. Jurors found that the Police Department covered up for Green, who had been drinking before the accident, by delaying a field sobriety test for more than an hour and by failing to measure Green’s blood-alcohol level. The jury also concluded that it was the department’s “custom and policy” to condone misbehavior by officers.