Golden Valley denied new trial in police case

The trial on excessive force that rewarded victim Al Hixon $778,000 was fair, a judge ruled. The city could appeal the decision.

By Curt Brown, Star Tribune

November 27, 2007 — A federal judge in St. Paul refused the city of Golden Valley's request for a new trial Tuesday and said he wouldn't reduce a jury award of $778,000 in an excessive force case in which police mistook a man as a bank robber and pepper-sprayed him.

Al Hixon was changing his oil at a Golden Valley gas station in 2005 when a nearby bank was robbed. A federal jury in September awarded Hixon $328,000 in compensatory damages and $450,000 in punitive damages after finding that officer Mario Hernandez used excessive force.

After an hourlong hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle said he was "satisfied this case was fairly tried" and ruled the damages were "well within permissible limits."

Attorney Jon Iverson, who is representing Golden Valley and Hernandez, said he will meet with Golden Valley officials to evaluate whether they might take the case to the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Iverson argued that Hixon's lawyers ignored the judge's pretrial ruling by injecting Hixon's racial background into a case that was supposed to be limited to whether excessive force was used.

Kyle said he determined the officers had probable cause to arrest Hixon, but he said it was unreasonable "to somehow block out race entirely."

Hixon is black and 911 transcriptions show officers were told the bank robbery suspect was white. Hixon's lawyer, Andrew Parker, insisted jurors simply believed Hixon's testimony more than they believed the officers.

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