Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991, p. 279 |
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3 Officers Acquitted in
39th-Dalton Drug Raid
■ Trial: Jurors say they believe vandalism occurred, but
that prosecutors failed to prove the defendants' role.
ByTERRYPRISTIN
and DAVID FERRELL
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Three Los Angeles police officers were cleared Wednesday of
criminal wrongdoing in the notorious ransacking of four apartments
at 39th Street and Dalton Avenue
in a 1988 drug raid. "~"-
After nearly three weeks of
deliberation, a Municipal Court jury
returned verdicts of not guilty on
five of six counts lodged against the
three officers. It deadlocked 9 to 3
in favor of acquittal on the sixth
count, which was subsequently
dismissed.
Jurors later said they believed
police officers had vandalized the
apartments, but that the prosecution had not proved the three
accused were guilty. The prosecutor complained the case had been
stymied by a Police Department
"code of silence" that deterred
officers from testifying truthfully
against one another.
The verdict appeared to end
criminal prosecution of a case that,
until it was eclipsed by the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King,
had been broadly condemned as a
flagrant example of excess by Los
Angeles police. Civil litigation in
the 39th and Dalton case so far has
cost Los Angeles $3.4 million in
settlements.
Jurors found Capt. Thomas Elfmont, 45, not guilty of conspiracy
to commit vandalism and deadlocked 9 to 3 on a separate vandalism count. The jury also acquitted
Sgt. Charles (Ted) Spicer, 42, and
Officer Todd B. Parrick, 28, of
vandalism and conspiracy counts.
Municipal Court Judge Larry
Paul Fidler dismissed the vandalism charge against Elfmont at the
request of Deputy Dist. Atty.
Christopher A. Darden.
As the verdicts were read in the
crowded courtroom, Elfmont, the
central figure in the misdemeanor
case, buried his face in his left hand
and sobbed. He had been accused
of urging his officers to render the
apartments of suspected drug dealers "uninhabitable" in a roll call
briefing three days before the Aug.
1, 1988, raid in South Los Angeles.
•- Eighty officers participated in the
45-minute raid. Some smashed toilets, broke--wif»dows and-painted
pro-police graffiti on an outside
wall.
Police said they believed the
apartments were gang-controlled
"crack" cocaine houses, but less
than an ounce of cocaine and fewer
Jhan six ounces of marijuana were
confiscated. Several dozen suspected gang members were taken
into custody, but only seven were
booked and none was charged with
a crime, police said.
i "Everybody's convinced that
vandalism occurred," said juror
Sharon Bess, of Pasadena, a supervisor for the county Department of
Children's Services. "But we cannot prove that those three people
were responsible for the vandalism."
She said the racially mixed jury—six members were black-
were certain that some police officers other than the defendants
were "flat-out lying" when they
testified about the raid.
Jury foreman Isom Cox, a photocopier from Compton, offered a
blunt assessment: "I think the
wrong men were brought to trial,"
he said.
Darden, the prosecutor, said the
outcome might have been different
if the Police Department had encouraged honest testimony.
"Had we had a little more support from the LAPD in terms of
ensuring that these officers testified truthfully, I think that might
have helped," Darden said. "I think
[the officers) lied about what happened, and I think they lied as to
why it happened, and I think they
lied about who did it."
fc Darden also said his prosecution
•^was hampered by his lack of access
Ho depositions in civil cases and by
■the failure of the Police Department's Internal Affairs Division to
assist his investigation.
i
Lt. Fred Nixon, a Police Department spokesman, said the department determined that 38 officers committed acts of misconduct
in the 39th £nd Dalton raid. Of
those, he said, 25 were suspended
without pay; one resigned; and
another, probationary Officer Jeff
*Mtindt, was fired.
Defendants had worried that the
intense criticism of police arising
from the King beating would affect
the jury's impartiality, but jurors
said they abided by the court's
order to refrain from-discussing
King or watch news reports about
it.
"Anything that came up about
Rodney King, we had to head the
other way," Bess said.
Expressing relief that his fears of
an anti-Police 'Department sentiment had not been realized, Elfmont said: "Apparently the jury
believes in the system. And the
system says you have to prove
somebody's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You can't just take a
freight train and put people on it
and send them to jail."
Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said
he was "pleased with the outcome"
of the case.
During seven weeks of testimony, prosecutors tried to show that
Elfmont and Spicer directed their
officers to devastate the apartments, and that Parrick played a
prominent role in carrying out the
instructions by taking an ax to
apartment walls and cabinets.
Destruction was widespread.
Televisions and VCRs were broken. A glass table top was smashed
and doors were removed from a
refrigerator and dryer. Bedposts
and mirrors were shattered. A
vacuum cleaner was found outside,
apparently thrown out a window,
and residents complained that
clothing was destroyed by bleach.
A slogan, "Gang Task Force
Rules," was scrawled on a wall
outside one of the units.
Sixteen police officers testified
during the trial under orders from
Gates. In some cases, the witnesses
seemed less than compliant.
Defense attorneys acknowledged that police may have committed vandalism at 39th.and Dalton, but they denied that the three
defendants were among the perpe-
Object Description
| Title | Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991 |
| Description | Newspaper clippings (Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Daily News, New York Times, Sentinel) and magazine articles (U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek) documenting Los Angeles Police Department misconduct under Chief Daryl F. Gates, 1978-1991, compiled by Irving Kessler and Lynn F. Kessler. Includes: Introduction, Contents, Excessive force, Rodney King, Mexican nationality, Civil rights, Property, Silence, Discrimination, Accountability, Gates intolerance, Recommendations. PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
| Coverage date | 1978/1991 |
| Creator |
Kessler, Irving, compiler Kessler, Lynn F., compiler |
| Publisher (of the original version) | Los Angeles Times; L.A. Weekly; U.S. News & World Report; Los Angeles Daily News; New York Times; Newsweek; Sentinel |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California, USA; Washington, DC, USA; New York, New York, USA |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
| Date created | 1991 |
| Date issued | 1978/1991 |
| Type |
texts images |
| Format | 368 p. |
| Format (aat) |
clippings (information artifacts) articles summaries |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
| Series | Independent Commission File List |
| File | Complaints, suggestions, and support |
| Box and folder | box 23, folders 7-9 |
| Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
| Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
| Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
| Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | indep-box23-07_09 |
Description
| Title | Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991, p. 279 |
| Format (imt) | image/tiff |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | 3 Officers Acquitted in 39th-Dalton Drug Raid ■ Trial: Jurors say they believe vandalism occurred, but that prosecutors failed to prove the defendants' role. ByTERRYPRISTIN and DAVID FERRELL TIMES STAFF WRITERS Three Los Angeles police officers were cleared Wednesday of criminal wrongdoing in the notorious ransacking of four apartments at 39th Street and Dalton Avenue in a 1988 drug raid. "~"- After nearly three weeks of deliberation, a Municipal Court jury returned verdicts of not guilty on five of six counts lodged against the three officers. It deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal on the sixth count, which was subsequently dismissed. Jurors later said they believed police officers had vandalized the apartments, but that the prosecution had not proved the three accused were guilty. The prosecutor complained the case had been stymied by a Police Department "code of silence" that deterred officers from testifying truthfully against one another. The verdict appeared to end criminal prosecution of a case that, until it was eclipsed by the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King, had been broadly condemned as a flagrant example of excess by Los Angeles police. Civil litigation in the 39th and Dalton case so far has cost Los Angeles $3.4 million in settlements. Jurors found Capt. Thomas Elfmont, 45, not guilty of conspiracy to commit vandalism and deadlocked 9 to 3 on a separate vandalism count. The jury also acquitted Sgt. Charles (Ted) Spicer, 42, and Officer Todd B. Parrick, 28, of vandalism and conspiracy counts. Municipal Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler dismissed the vandalism charge against Elfmont at the request of Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher A. Darden. As the verdicts were read in the crowded courtroom, Elfmont, the central figure in the misdemeanor case, buried his face in his left hand and sobbed. He had been accused of urging his officers to render the apartments of suspected drug dealers "uninhabitable" in a roll call briefing three days before the Aug. 1, 1988, raid in South Los Angeles. •- Eighty officers participated in the 45-minute raid. Some smashed toilets, broke--wif»dows and-painted pro-police graffiti on an outside wall. Police said they believed the apartments were gang-controlled "crack" cocaine houses, but less than an ounce of cocaine and fewer Jhan six ounces of marijuana were confiscated. Several dozen suspected gang members were taken into custody, but only seven were booked and none was charged with a crime, police said. i "Everybody's convinced that vandalism occurred," said juror Sharon Bess, of Pasadena, a supervisor for the county Department of Children's Services. "But we cannot prove that those three people were responsible for the vandalism." She said the racially mixed jury—six members were black- were certain that some police officers other than the defendants were "flat-out lying" when they testified about the raid. Jury foreman Isom Cox, a photocopier from Compton, offered a blunt assessment: "I think the wrong men were brought to trial," he said. Darden, the prosecutor, said the outcome might have been different if the Police Department had encouraged honest testimony. "Had we had a little more support from the LAPD in terms of ensuring that these officers testified truthfully, I think that might have helped," Darden said. "I think [the officers) lied about what happened, and I think they lied as to why it happened, and I think they lied about who did it." fc Darden also said his prosecution •^was hampered by his lack of access Ho depositions in civil cases and by ■the failure of the Police Department's Internal Affairs Division to assist his investigation. i Lt. Fred Nixon, a Police Department spokesman, said the department determined that 38 officers committed acts of misconduct in the 39th £nd Dalton raid. Of those, he said, 25 were suspended without pay; one resigned; and another, probationary Officer Jeff *Mtindt, was fired. Defendants had worried that the intense criticism of police arising from the King beating would affect the jury's impartiality, but jurors said they abided by the court's order to refrain from-discussing King or watch news reports about it. "Anything that came up about Rodney King, we had to head the other way," Bess said. Expressing relief that his fears of an anti-Police 'Department sentiment had not been realized, Elfmont said: "Apparently the jury believes in the system. And the system says you have to prove somebody's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You can't just take a freight train and put people on it and send them to jail." Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said he was "pleased with the outcome" of the case. During seven weeks of testimony, prosecutors tried to show that Elfmont and Spicer directed their officers to devastate the apartments, and that Parrick played a prominent role in carrying out the instructions by taking an ax to apartment walls and cabinets. Destruction was widespread. Televisions and VCRs were broken. A glass table top was smashed and doors were removed from a refrigerator and dryer. Bedposts and mirrors were shattered. A vacuum cleaner was found outside, apparently thrown out a window, and residents complained that clothing was destroyed by bleach. A slogan, "Gang Task Force Rules," was scrawled on a wall outside one of the units. Sixteen police officers testified during the trial under orders from Gates. In some cases, the witnesses seemed less than compliant. Defense attorneys acknowledged that police may have committed vandalism at 39th.and Dalton, but they denied that the three defendants were among the perpe- |
| Filename | indep-box23-08-04~26.tif |
| Archival file | Volume77/indep-box23-08-04~26.tif |
