Police Case May Haunt Cities

The former Inglewood police officer fired after being videotaped hitting a black teenager expressed vindication Wednesday by a $1.6-million jury award for wrongful termination, while local police agencies assessed how the judgment would affect the way they discipline officers.

The jury award was the talk of both Inglewood and the Southern California law enforcement community Wednesday and comes at a time when police departments are trying to be more vigilant about dealing with officers accused of excessive force.

When the video first surfaced three years ago, some compared Inglewood Police Officer Jeremy Morse and his partner to the Los Angeles Police Department officers who beat Rodney G. King.

U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said he was troubled by the incident and dispatched his top civil rights lawyer to help investigate. Community activists protested, and Morse was fired.

But over the next three years, two juries deadlocked on whether the videotaped images -- Morse slamming a black teenager onto his police cruiser and punching him in the face -- was a crime. On Tuesday, a civil jury awarded Morse $1.6 million, saying the city’s decision to fire him amounted to racial discrimination.

Morse said in an interview Wednesday, his first since the videotape was initially broadcast in July 2002, that the award was bittersweet vindication.

Morse said he would like to be a cop again -- his lifelong dream -- but questions whether that’s possible.

“I don’t know what chance I would have. I don’t know whether anyone would ever hire me,” he said. “There’s no dollar amount that can ever change what has occurred to me, or give me back a part of my life that was taken away from me.”

The family of the teenager, Donovan Jackson, expressed disappointment over the jury award, which included $811,000 for Morse’s partner, Bijan Darvish, who remains with the Inglewood Police Department.

“It seems they’re getting millions of dollars for beating someone,” said Nancy Goins, the teenager’s aunt. “I don’t have any dislike for police officers, they have a hard job. But when you run into officers who take it upon themselves to do things to others they would not want done to themselves, that’s not fair, and that’s not right.”

Some experts believe the award might make police departments, which in the past have been accused of being too soft on officers accused of excessive force, think twice about how they discipline them in the future.

“It could have a cautionary effect on how departments approach the issue of discipline,” said Laurie Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and former federal prosecutor. “It’s an odd case, but departments can’t bet that the next one won’t be odd as well.”

The civil lawsuit alleged that Morse and Darvish -- both white -- were punished more severely than a black officer, Willie Crook, who also struck Jackson. Morse had argued during his criminal trial that his treatment of Jackson was justified because the 16-year-old resisted.

Jeffrey Eglash, a former federal prosecutor and former inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Commission, said police departments should not read too much into the jury’s actions.

“Certainly, departments in the area will take note of this verdict and be aware of it, but hopefully it won’t chill them in their determination to discipline officers found to use excessive force,” he said. “It simply points out the fact that discipline needs to be imposed fairly and in a way that will be seen as fair if it’s ever reviewed by a trial jury.”

Inglewood city leaders denied Wednesday that they discriminated against Morse and said they might appeal the judgment.

“I think it’s a bad verdict, and I don’t think the facts supported the verdict,” said City Atty. Anita Willis.

Morse’s attorney, Gregory Smith, argued in court that Crook was suspended for four days, while Morse was fired and Darvish was suspended for 10 days. Smith said the city did this to appease blacks who felt Morse and Darvish’s actions were racially motivated.

But Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn said Crook was eventually removed as a police officer and became a jailer for the city.

“The black officer was not treated differently. If anything, he was treated more severely than Darvish. There was no racial discrimination,” Dorn said. But Smith said Crook testified that he resigned, and denied that he was fired.

The incident occurred July 6, 2002, at an Inglewood gas station. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were talking to Jackson’s father about expired registration tags on his car when Jackson came out of the station’s snack shop. When Jackson failed to follow deputies’ orders, one led the teenager to a squad car and ordered him to sit down. Jackson refused, which led to a struggle.

Inglewood officers, who had arrived to assist, wrestled Jackson to the ground and handcuffed him. The videotape shows Morse picking up a limp Jackson and throwing him onto the trunk of a patrol car, then punching him in the face.

Morse was raised in Hermiston, a town of 13,000 in northeast Oregon near the Washington border. A Christian youth counselor and fitness buff, Morse grew up wanting to be a police officer.

On Wednesday, Morse spoke about how much he had loved his job.

“It means the world to me. My whole life I stayed away from drugs. As a teen I stayed away from doing bad things, growing up with good morals that continue until this day,” Morse said with his attorney present. He did this, in part, “in the hopes of being an officer one day. Finally that dream came true, and that was taken away from me.”

Morse, who focused much of the last three years preparing for his various trials, now lives in Idaho. He said he is not sure what he will do now.

Asked whether he had any regrets about his actions, Morse could not answer before his attorney interrupted.

“He did what he had to do, what he was trained to do,” Smith said. “He regrets that he had to go through this whole thing.”

Experts say it will take time to determine whether the jury’s award causes police departments to reexamine their discipline policies.

Merrick Bobb, special counsel for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said he thinks “this case may be simply one of a kind.”

Bobb said that while police officers often sue their departments after being disciplined, most of those cases are resolved through internal disciplinary or union grievance processes.

It’s unusual for such a case to not only reach the courts, but to result in such a large judgment, he said.

Gary Fullerton, a former director with the L.A. Police Protective League who has represented police officers, said the issue of excessive force is of obvious importance.

“But so is the issue of disparate treatment or what you would call reverse discrimination in that two white officers were immediately pounced on ... and a black officer” was apparently treated more leniently, Fullerton said.

“The public will probably have a hard time separating the issues,” Fullerton said. “Most people today are probably saying, ‘How could this be? On the video, this cop is roughing up a young boy; why are taxpayers paying this guy out?’ ”

Donovan Jackson’s attorney is also asking that question.

“I think it’s outrageous,” said Cameron Stewart, who is representing Jackson in a federal civil rights lawsuit against Inglewood and Morse, Darvish and Crook. “Here’s a guy that basically got off after being caught beating a teenager on videotape. He was terminated, and rightfully so, and he goes and files a lawsuit and is awarded over a million dollars?”