Report: Movie underway about Ron Settles police brutality case in Signal Hill

A Hollywood production company is making a movie about the controversial case of Ron Settles, who died in 1981 while in jail in Signal Hill, according to the entertainment website deadline.com.

The film, to be produced by The Firm, will focus on the role of renowned lawyer Johie Cochran, who rose to fame during the O.J. Simpson case. Cochran, who died in 2005, represented the family of Settles, a Cal State Long Beach football player who had been pulled over for speeding. Signal Hill police at the time claimed Settles hanged himself in his cell; Cochran had his body exhumed, and an autopsy showed that he had been choked to death.

The family was eventually awarded $760,000 in a civil suit. The police chief at the time also resigned, and the case gained national attention.

The Firm’s President is Robbie Breer, who produced the “Dallas Buyers Club,” which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The screenplay for the script was written by David McMillan, who wrote the FX series “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.”

Reached by phone Wednesday, Brian Du, managing partner at The Cochran Firm, said he hadn’t heard of the production of the Settles movie, but said Cochran’s work and legacy continues to resonate today.

The attoey’s first major case was that of Leonard Deadwyler, a black man who was shot to death in 1966 by Los Angeles police during a traffic stop. Deadwyler had run a red light as he drove his wife, who was in labor, to a hospital.

Cochran lost the case, but it put him on the map, Du said. The Settles case hits a different landmark.

“It was a precursor to a lot of mode civil rights litigation in Southe Califoia,” he said.

Du called the Settles case an example of a police homicide, and though there was no criminal prosecution, the case introduced to the wider public the idea of excessive force.

“Nowadays with all the video evidence, people are begiing to catch on,” he said. “Johie was one of the first lawyers who had the courage to speak out and tell to truth.” As an aside, Du had harsh words for “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” series, saying it cast Cochran “as someone he wasn’t.”

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