Lapd Lawsuits: Collect 'Em All

The $3.8 million awarded to Rodney King by a Los Angeles jury last week is not the first multimillion-dollar sum the city has had to pay to compensate for the actions of its occasionally too interventionist police force:

-- An unidentified teenage girl, who was molested by an officer in 1989, was awarded $6.3 million by a jury in 1992 (plus $200,000 for her mother).

-- Adelaido Altamirano, shot and paralyzed by an off-duty officer, settled a lawsuit for $5.5 million in 1991.

-- Benny Powell and Clarence Chance, wrongly convicted of murder, settled lawsuits in 1993 for $3.5 million each.

-- Onie Palmer, whose home was damaged during a drug raid, settled a lawsuit for $3 million in 1990.

-- Service Employees International, a union whose members were involved in a violent confrontation with police, settled a lawsuit for $2.35 million in 1993.