Gates Suspends Officer for Restaurant Brawl

A Los Angeles police sergeant who was involved in a brawl last year at a Burbank restaurant was suspended by Chief Daryl F. Gates for six months Thursday, despite a recommendation from a police board that the officer be fired.

Gates ordered Sgt. Christopher Bonilla, 32, suspended without pay immediately from his patrol supervisor’s position at the Wilshire Division.

Bonilla, a nine-year veteran, was among six off-duty officers who fought with a patron and five employees at the Black Angus restaurant, 235 S. 1st St., after a dispute over a spilled bottle of beer in the restaurant’s bar, Burbank police said.

Bonilla and two of the officers pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace earlier this year and were fined $470 each.

A six-day Board of Rights hearing ended last week with a recommendation that Bonilla be fired for three counts of misconduct, including drinking, making threats and kicking a man who had been dragged out of the restaurant by the officers.

A Board of Rights, made up of three high-ranking officers, can only make recommendations on discipline and Gates is not bound to follow them. Lt. Fred Nixon said Gates reduced the recommended penalty without comment.

The department took lesser disciplinary action against the five other officers.