(Click here, if you are unable to view this photo gallery on your mobile device.)

OAKLAND — An Alameda County jury Monday found that Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks must pay $550,000 in punitive damages to former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown.

The same jury in December awarded Brown $3.75 million in a civil lawsuit she filed against the city of Oakland and Brooks, claiming the councilwoman injured her during an alleged assault on Oct. 30, 2015 at Everett and Jones Barbeque. Brooks, 56, shoved Brown, 74, causing her to fall and injure her rotator cuff.

Jurors found Brown — 72 at the time of the incident — was the victim of elder abuse and battery and unanimously agreed Brooks was working within the scope of employment as a city employee. While the award in the December verdict applies to the city of Oakland, the jury’s decision on Monday will come out of Brooks’ own pocket.

Jurors deliberated for one hour and 20 minutes before the damages amount of $550,000 was read aloud in Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Herbert’s courtroom. Brooks, who has represented East Oakland since 2002, was not present.

“The decision was disappointing but not unexpected,” Brooks said in a statement.

“The jurors sent a message to Desley and public officials who abuse power,” said Brown’s attorney, Charles Bonner. “If someone in political power abuses someone, they must pay.”

In her 2016 lawsuit, Brown accused Brooks of pushing her down inside the popular Broadway restaurant after a heated exchange about housing for Oakland’s black community. Brown was celebrating filing a $2.1 million funding application for an affordable housing project in West Oakland. Brooks allegedly said the project was of “no benefit to black people” and threatened to get the city funding withdrawn.

Before closing remarks on Monday, Bonner called his final witness, a council aide who worked for Brooks until Oct. 12, 2017. Sidney Wilson testified that Brooks “pinched and shoved” him while they were serving food at an event in East Oakland on Oct. 7, 2017. Wilson said Brooks had left the food line to speak to a constituent and pushed him to get her spot back serving macaroni.

“She pinched me and shoved my arm to take her place back in the serving line. The shove was deliberate. I was honestly shocked,” Wilson said. Wilson, who also testified that Brooks was verbally abusive, said he quit “due to the totality of abuse.”

On the stand Monday, Brooks denied the altercation took place. The councilwoman said she gave Wilson the option to resign or be fired because of his performance. “I had no knowledge of the pinch until I saw his resignation letter,” Brooks said.

Besides Brown, Wilson is the second person to accuse the East Oakland councilwoman of a physical altercation. In a court deposition, Carlos Plazola said that Brooks pushed him out of a room at City Hall when he worked for then-Council President Ignacio De La Fuente more than a decade ago. Brooks denied shoving Plazola in her court deposition.

In closing remarks, Bonner had urged the jury to award punitive damages in the range of $1 million to $3 million to “prevent this conduct from happening again.”

Juror Rudy Taylor of Hayward said jurors agreed Brooks should pay punitive damages but argued over the amount.

“I wanted to get (Brown) a million,” Taylor said after the hearing. Brooks “was a bully. She needs anger management. I’m hoping she learns her lesson and she won’t do this again. But I didn’t think she cared. She thought she was going to get away with it.”

Another juror, Newark resident Eric Shaw, said jurors awarded the $3.75 million against the city in part because lawyers with the City Attorney’s Office defended Brooks in the December trial. “To me, it was clear the city saw responsibility,” Shaw said. “I hope (Brooks) gets help. She definitely has anger management issues. She definitely abuses her power.”

The city can challenge the $3.75 million verdict. Speaking generally and not specific to the Brooks’ verdict, a spokesman for Mayor Libby Schaaf said all misconduct verdicts against public servants are “a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

“Oaklanders would much rather have their money spent on fixing our homeless crisis and paving roads than paying out verdicts against public servants,” spokesman Justin Berton said.

Defense attorney Warren Metlitzky said the $3.75 million jury verdict has already served as punishment against Brooks. In closing statements, Metlitzky reminded the jury that the punitive damages cannot be higher than what Brooks can afford to pay. The councilwoman said she earns $82,000 a year in salary, has less than $5,000 in her savings account and is still paying off $150,000 in law school loans, on top of the mortgage she pays for her East Oakland home.

Start your day with the news you need from the Bay Area and beyond.

Sign up for our new Morning Report weekday newsletter.

“That’s a verdict she’ll have to live with for the rest of her life,” the attorney said.