Man Dies After Celebrating Jury Award : Tragedy: Carson resident collapses after Samoan dance. He and 35 others won $15.9 million from Sheriff’s Department.

A Carson man collapsed and died after joining in a Samoan ceremonial dance to celebrate the $15.9-million judgment that a jury awarded him and 35 others in ruling that they had been brutalized or falsely arrested by sheriff’s deputies at a bridal shower in 1989.

Relatives said Tafilele Arthur Dole, 37, apparently succumbed to heart and kidney failure at a Samoan Flag Day gathering at Victoria Park in Carson.

His attorney, Garo Mardirossian, said Dole had been suffering from ulcers, with attendant heart and kidney problems, since being roughed up by deputies during the bridal shower at his parents’ home in Carson in February, 1989.

Last month, Dole was hospitalized for several days when his condition worsened, relatives said. “The doctor had told him to avoid stress,” said his brother, David Dole, who was awarded the top individual judgment--$3.8 million. “But Tafi said he was feeling OK and he wanted to go to the park.”

Most of those who shared in the award were members of the Dole family, which was honored by the more than 1,000 people who gathered at the park Saturday. After the family patriarch, Arthur Dole, 67, addressed the throng, the Doles were invited to participate in a traditional celebratory dance.

“I told Tafi to take it easy, but he said, ‘They’re honoring us. I’m going out there,’ ” David Dole said Monday.

“After the dance was over, I asked him if he was OK,” David Dole said. “He said, ‘Yes, but I’ve got to catch my breath.’ He turned to speak to a friend, and he fell. As we turned him over, he looked at us and a rush of air came out of him. It was his last breath.”

Tafilele Dole--a bachelor machinist who lived with his brother--had been awarded compensatory damages of $170,000 in the jury’s verdict.

He was among about 40 people who attended the bridal shower at Arthur Dole’s home in 1989. After receiving several calls that people were fighting in the street outside the home with sticks and knives, scores of sheriff’s deputies descended upon the scene.

What ensued--according to party-goers and to neighbors who watched the scene and in one case videotaped it--was a melee during which deputies in riot gear clubbed, kicked and swore at unresisting men and women, some of whom lay handcuffed on the ground.

Deputies--who said they reacted only after bottles and rocks were thrown at them--arrested 34 people. Most of the charges were dropped. A jury acquitted David Dole and three others of riot and assault charges.

On Aug. 6, a civil court jury ordered financially beleaguered Los Angeles County to pay $15.9 million to 36 plaintiffs--the largest award ever levied against the Sheriff’s Department. Attorneys for the department have asked that the award be overturned, and appeals are expected to continue for several years.