In 1990, Brian Forrett broke into a Riverside, California, house, hog-tied the roommates who lived there, ransacked the house, stole the residents' guns and shot a visitor, Nathan White, who happened to stop by. The bullet hit White in the eye, permanently blinding him. Even worse, he received a blood transfusion that was tainted with HIV; now he has AIDS.

Police were told that Forrett had taken guns and ammunition. They located his car, but it contained no weapons. When they caught up with Forrett, he was trying to escape over a wall; police shot him twice, once in the back. An investigation cleared the four officers.

Forrett was sentenced to 32 years in prison, from where he launched a lawsuit against the Riverside Police Department, citing excessive use of force. Even Forrett's lawyer, Steve Yagman, who is well-known for taking on such cases against police, was disgusted by the case. "What my client did was morally repugnant," he told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "He doesn't deserve anything."

Yagman tried to have himself removed from the case, but the judge would not allow it. He argued the case in March, 1995, and secretly hoped that the federal jury in Los Angeles would see through his arguments but, to his astonishment, it found for Forrett, awarding him $1 in compensatory damages from each of the four police officers involved. A hearing to determine punitive damages has yet to take place.

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