The Region - News from July 7, 1985

The family of a man allegedly beaten to death by a Pomona police officer has agreed to an out-of-court settlement of a civil rights suit. Laura Taylor and her three children will receive a total of $375,000 in damages from the city of Pomona, the California Highway Patrol and Schaefer’s Ambulance Service in connection with the 1983 killing of the woman’s husband, Michael McCoy Taylor, attorneys representing both sides said. Pomona Police Officer Kenneth Gillespie was acquitted last March of assault charges in the case. Relatives of the victim then filed the civil rights suit in U.S. District Court. Taylor, who was black, died of injuries sustained when he was arrested by Gillespie, two other Pomona police officers and two highway patrolmen, all of whom were white. Taylor was suspected of being under the influence of PCP. An autopsy showed traces of the drug in his body.