Family Gets Settlement in Slaying by Deputy : Excessive force: Survivors of a man killed in 1991 will get $4.4 million. Officers said they thought victim, who was carrying a stick, had a firearm.

The family of a Cudahy man who was shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy three years ago won a $4.4-million judgment against the county--one of the largest use-of-force verdicts involving a deputy in recent years, a county official said Friday.

“It’s a large verdict,” said Principal Deputy County Counsel Patrick Meyers. “It’s a bit to swallow. All of us anticipated that we would get a better result.”

The death of Emiliano Camacho in early 1991 was attributed to a deputy’s belief that the 40-year-old man was holding a gun when he answered the door of his apartment in the 3900 block of East Walnut Street. Instead, he was carrying a 29-inch stick, found lying bloodstained beside his body.

No weapon was found in Camacho’s apartment.

Former Deputy Steve Feliciano, who had answered a family disturbance call, believed the stick was a rifle or shotgun and fired two shots, hitting Camacho once in the chest, the district attorney’s office said in a report exonerating the deputy.

Feliciano, who has since resigned, and Deputy Larry Moon went to the apartment shortly before 2 a.m. on March 23, 1991, and heard what they thought was a gunshot, the report said. As they sought cover behind a parked car, Feliciano saw the apartment door open and Camacho emerge holding what the deputy thought was a rifle or shotgun, the report said.

After Camacho was shot, he made his way to a bedroom, where his body was found in a closet, the report said.

After a two-month trial, a Superior Court jury in Norwalk deliberated for four days before finding Thursday that Feliciano was negligent for not ordering Camacho to drop his weapon.

“The jury found it negligent that we did not announce: ‘Stop! Police! Drop your weapon!’ ” said Martha Shen, a private attorney retained to represent the county. “That happens on TV--not in real life.”

Shen described the verdict as “pretty outrageous.”

Events leading up to the shooting began when Camacho’s daughter, Monica, called 911 after her father awakened and began arguing with her mother, said attorney Gregory W. Moreno, who represented the family.

“The man was unarmed, he had been drinking and he argued with his wife,” Moreno said. “There was no criminal activity by the deceased” at the time of the shooting.

After the shooting, Camacho’s wife and children were ordered out of the house, Moreno said. The attorney said they told Feliciano and Moon that Camacho was still alive and that he was unarmed.

“But the family was kept in the back of a patrol car while a SWAT team took 3 1/2 hours to find out he wasn’t armed,” Moreno said. No officers entered the apartment where Camacho was mortally wounded, he said.

A medical expert brought in by the family testified that Camacho lived at least half an hour after the shooting, and might have been saved with medical attention.

But Shen said she thought Camacho died “pretty fast, “ pointing out that the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said he died within minutes of the shooting.

Deputies yelled to Camacho for two hours to come out, Shen said. “They knew the family said he had no weapon, but they thought he had a gun,” she said. “The jury did not find the deputies negligent for not going into house. That’s insane to go into the house when you think he has a rifle or shotgun.”

Camacho had been arrested three times, and convicted twice, on spousal abuse charges, Shen said. “Even though his daughter had witnessed fights between her parents before, for the first time in her life, she called 911,” she said. “He was on probation for battery on his wife at the time he was shot.”

She said Camacho’s widow, Evangelina, and three of his children had sought up to $21.5 million in damages.

“I think the verdict is pretty outrageous on one hand,” she said. “On the other hand, it is substantially lower than what they asked for.”

The judgment includes $200,000 for Camacho’s father, who lives in Mexico.

The county has not decided whether to appeal, Meyers said.

County records show that in a six-year period ending last July, taxpayers paid about $50 million in settlements, judgments and legal fees arising from excessive-force claims against deputies.

Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this story.