Convicted Police Officer to Stay on Force : Assault Charge Reduced to Misdemeanor; Resignation Avoided

A Los Angeles police detective who assaulted two men whom he had wrongly accused of stealing his truck will be allowed to remain on the force as the result of a ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

Instead of imposing a prison sentence, Judge Marvin D. Rowen on Friday placed Detective Dixon E. Tew, 41, of Newhall on probation for two years and ordered him to pay a $1,500 fine and perform 1,500 hours of community service.

Calling Tew’s assault last year on two employees of an Alvarado Street body shop an “isolated incident,” Rowen reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor the charge of assault under color of authority to which Tew pleaded guilty last September. The crime can be prosecuted in either manner.

Sought Felony Conviction

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence E. Mason, who had asked for a felony conviction, said Tew would have been forced to resign from the Police Department if the charge had not been reduced.

“I didn’t think the sentence was appropriate,” Mason said.

Earlier this year, Tew was suspended without pay for six months after an inquiry into the incident by the Police Department. The suspension ended in August.

Despite his decision to reduce the assault charge, Rowen rebuked Tew for his actions and questioned the motives of police officers who filled his courtroom to watch the sentencing.

“There is nothing that justifies your conduct,” Rowen told Tew, who works as a Juvenile Division narcotics investigator. “There is nothing that makes it understandable. It is reprehensible.”

Looking at Tew, the judge said: “When I see a courtroom full of police officers . . . I have some degree of distress. I’m not sure whether that’s intended as support for you. . . . I hope it’s not intended as intimidation of the court.”

Truck Stripped

The incident that led to Tew’s conviction occurred Sept. 4, 1984, after Tew’s truck, stolen in Hollywood, was discovered in an alley near 11th and Alvarado streets, west of downtown Los Angeles. It had been stripped.

With their sergeant’s permission, Tew and Detective David McGowan, 38, drove to the spot where the truck was found, Mason said. They found a witness who said an employee of the nearby Ambrosia Body Shop had been seen near the truck. After summoning Detective Alejandro Rosales, 40, as an interpreter, the detectives began questioning employees at the shop.

According to his probation report, Tew assaulted Jose Pleitez and Jose L. Banos, 30. Banos was seriously injured, the report said, suffering two black eyes and bruises to head, abdomen and genitals. Neither man had anything to do with the theft of the truck, Mason said.

Mason said McGowan, against whom charges have been dropped in return for his testimony, acted as a lookout while Rosales assisted Tew in the interrogation. Rosales is to be tried this week on a charge of assault under color of authority, the same charge to which Tew pleaded guilty. The truck thief was never caught.