Baca to Study Deputies’ Role in Beating Probe

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Tuesday that he will investigate allegations that his deputies provided incomplete or misleading information to Los Angeles Police Department detectives looking into the videotaped beating of suspected car thief Stanley Miller.

The Sheriff’s Department inquiry represents an expansion of the investigation into potential brutality during the June 23 arrest of Miller.

As many as eight deputies responded to the Compton neighborhood where Miller was chased by LAPD officers after abandoning the stolen car he was driving.

TV news videotapes show Miller being repeatedly kneed and struck with a flashlight by an LAPD officer after he appeared to surrender.

The videotapes show one deputy at the scene a minute and a half after Miller was caught, and Sheriff’s Department sources said other deputies were nearby.

In an interview, Baca said he was particularly incensed by an LAPD report that one of his deputies assigned to the Compton station yelled, “No rats here!” at an LAPD detective working on the investigation.

Baca said the remark, if true, reflects an unacceptable code of silence.

“I will find out who made the remark,” Baca said. “If a deputy made such a remark, it reflects that individual should no longer be a deputy sheriff.... It reflects a gang mentality. That is an insult to every member of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and it is an insult to the public.”

Baca said he is ordering an investigation of what deputies saw and heard as Miller was apprehended.

At least two deputies are believed to have been close enough to give an accurate account, according to Michael Gennaco, head of the Office of Independent Review, an agency created by the County Board of Supervisors to oversee sheriff’s operations.

Their testimony could help settle a number of inconsistencies in accounts by LAPD officers, who, according to sources, told investigators that one policeman yelled, “Gun!” as they swarmed Miller.

Two civilian witnesses watching from their home about 20 feet away told The Times they did not hear any of the officers call out a warning that Miller had a gun.

The LAPD arrest report said a wire cutter was taken from Miller’s right front pants pocket during the arrest. But an officer involved in the arrest said through his attorney that the wire cutter was found in the stolen car, according to sources.

“According to the LAPD, they feel the deputies are not telling what they should,” Baca said. “It is my obligation to investigate the conduct here and explain why there are discrepancies.”

Based on reports from the LAPD, Baca said, he believes at least one of the deputies should have seen what happened.

“If they didn’t see what happened,” Baca asked, “what were they looking at?”

Investigators for both departments have expressed doubts about deputies who said they were too far away to see anything.

On the videotape, Officer Phillip Watson is seen tackling Miller after he placed his hands in the air. Then, as Watson and Officer David Hale pin Miller to the ground, Officer John J. Hatfield is seen kneeing the man and then striking him 11 times with a flashlight.

Hatfield said he hit Miller after he heard Hale yell that the suspect had a gun, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Four of the officers -- Peter Bueno, 29; Todd Behrens, 37; Hatfield, 35; and Watson, 33 -- told investigators they heard Hale’s warning, according to an LAPD source.

At least one deputy is shown on a news videotape talking with Hatfield about a minute and a half after the beating.

Los Angeles police officers have been implicated by law enforcement colleagues in the past.

In 1993, California Highway Patrol Officer Melanie Singer told jurors she saw four LAPD officers beat Rodney G. King two years earlier.

“I will never forget it to the day I die,” Singer testified.