Activist sues over alleged punch from Oakland councilwoman

Oakland City Council chairperson Desley Brooks goes through the meetings agenda at Oakland City Hall, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Oakland, Calif. The council postponed the vote of a controversial privacy policy for the city's Domain Awareness Center, a surveillance hub at the Port of Oakland that collects and monitors video feeds in order to protect the port from security threats, until their next committee meeting. less Oakland City Council chairperson Desley Brooks goes through the meetings agenda at Oakland City Hall, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Oakland, Calif. The council postponed the vote of a controversial privacy policy ... more Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Activist sues over alleged punch from Oakland councilwoman 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Former Black Panther Party head Elaine Brown is suing the city of Oakland and Councilwoman Desley Brooks for $7 million for injuries she said she suffered when Brooks punched her in a downtown soul food restaurant.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court, alleges that Brooks, 54, unleashed “a tsunami of criminal, assaultive, violent conduct on Ms. Brown” during a dispute over affordable housing. It includes three photographs in which Brown, 72, appears to be getting hospital treatment, with one showing tubes running through her neck and nose.

“You can see the kind of misery that she has gone through,” said Brown’s attorney, Charles Bonner.

Brown, who ran the Black Panther Party from 1974 to 1977 following Huey Newton’s leadership, claimed she suffered head injuries and bruises and underwent surgery at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland for a “massive rotator cuff tear” after the Oct. 30 incident at Everett & Jones.

Details of lawsuit

It stemmed from a conflict that escalated when Brooks allegedly threatened to block Brown’s bid for city funding to build affordable housing near the urban farm she operates in West Oakland.

“’I have not moved on you before because you’re old. But now I am tired of your bull—!’” the lawsuit alleges Brooks yelled at Brown before punching the older woman in the chest with two fists, sending her stumbling over a stack of folded chairs and causing her to land hard on the back of her head and shoulders.

Brown has argued for months that the city should be held liable for her injuries because Oakland officials knew that Brooks — who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee — had a “propensity” for violence. According to the lawsuit, Brooks assaulted a city staffer during a closed-door council meeting that took place roughly a decade ago, also hitting him in the chest with two fists.

“She has struck, hit, pushed, assaulted, and battered people before this latest vicious, violent attack, assault and battery on Ms. Brown,” the lawsuit claims.

Council’s rejection

But the Oakland City Council rejected that argument in January, after Brown filed a 16-page complaint against the city. Ruling that the incident didn’t happen “within the course and scope of Ms. Brooks’ position as an Oakland City Councilmember,” the council voted unanimously to turn down Brown’s demand for $1 million from the city and $6 million from Brooks.

“She was not representing the council at that meeting, and she certainly wasn’t representing me,” Councilman Noel Gallo said Friday.

Bonner, the attorney, insists that the city is at least partly culpable for Brooks’ alleged misconduct.

“This whole thing erupted because Brooks threatened to destroy an application for affordable housing,” he said. “She was speaking in her official capacity. ... They were not talking about the Warriors, or about going to a beauty salon, or about a trip to Europe.”

Brooks did not return calls Friday seeking comment, and she has never publicly addressed Brown’s accusation. A spokesman for the Oakland city attorney’s office said he couldn’t comment because the office had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

Oakland police completed a criminal probe of the incident and submitted the evidence to the Alameda County district attorney’s office, where it is under review.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan