PAYOUT TO WIDOW LARGEST OF KIND.

Byline: Don Holland Staff Writer

Three years after an Oxnard police officer shot and killed his partner in a botched drug raid, the city agreed to pay the slain officer's family $3.5 million in the largest such settlement ever in Ventura County.

The agreement was hammered out Monday as the city and attorneys for the family of slain Officer James Jensen prepared for trial later this month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

``Jennifer Jensen is a lot happier today because of the settlement vindicating her husband's name,'' said Encino attorney Edward Steinbrecher, who represents the slain officer's wife and two children.

``The city of Oxnard was trying to blame him for the shooting, and he was completely faultless. He did exactly what he was supposed to do in accordance with the SWAT plan. And he was shot in the back three times at close range.''

Alan Wisotsky an attorney representing the city, did not return phone calls for comment.

Jensen, 30, was shot by his partner and friend, Sgt. Daniel Christian, as the special weapons and tactics team raided an Oxnard condominium where drug-dealer suspects were thought to be living in March 1996.

Jensen led the raid, but Christian said he lost track of his partner's whereabouts and fired three shots from his 12-gauge shotgun when he saw someone who he believed was a suspect facing him and pointing a gun in the smoke-filled hallway.

Steinbrecher said his investigation showed that Christian was using the prescription painkiller Vicodin for migraine headaches and a severe sinus condition, impairing the sergeant's perception and judgment.

An investigation by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office concluded that Christian should have not mistaken Jensen for a suspect, but that Christian's actions did not amount to criminal negligence.

He remains with the department but is no longer a SWAT team member.

Since the shooting, the department began requiring all officers to report the use of prescription medications. The case also led to changes in the department's SWAT training.

Filed in February, 1997, the federal lawsuit claimed that police officials failed to adequately prepare the special weapons team for dangerous raids and failed to complete a good-faith investigation or discipline Christian.

Half of the settlement proceeds will be paid in a lump sum to Jennifer Jensen. The other half will be paid over time to the couple's two young daughters after they turn 18.