Penn Allowed to See Police Photographs of Gang Members

As the second day of jury selection continued in the trial of accused police killer Sagon Penn, an appellate court Thursday granted Penn access to hundreds of photographs of black gang members that were kept in a file by San Diego Police Agent Donovan Jacobs.

In was second favorable ruling for Penn in less than a month, the 4th District Court of Appeal admonished Superior Court Judge Kenneth A. Johns for refusing to turn over the photographs to Penn’s defense attorney.

“(Johns) denied production of the photographs on the basis . . . the (Superior) Court had no jurisdiction to make the order,” Justice Edward T. Butler wrote for the appellate court. “(He) was wrong.”

Butler added that, in the appellate court’s Jan. 30 ruling, it directed Johns to order the Police Department to produce any photographs mentioned by Officer James Stevens during his testimony at a Feb. 3 hearing. Although Stevens said he knew of at least 100 photos that he turned over to Jacobs, Johns refused to grant requests from Penn’s attorney to inspect them.

Milton Silverman, Penn’s attorney, has said he plans to use the photos to ask black youths in San Diego’s Southeast community about the circumstances surrounding the photographing by Jacobs and Stevens.

Penn, 24, who is black, is charged with murder in the March 31 shooting death of Agent Thomas Riggs, and attempted murder in the shootings of Jacobs and Sara Pena-Ruiz, a civilian accompanying Riggs on patrol. Penn contended that he acted in self-defense after he was beaten by Jacobs.

Silverman has alleged in court papers that Jacobs kept illegal dossiers on blacks he had targeted for arrest while working in the Police Department’s Southeastern Division.

Jacobs admitted in court that he kept a personal file on suspected black gang members, a practice the former head of the Police Department gang detail testified was not authorized.

The appellate court also ordered Johns to “put all other business aside” and comply with its original Jan. 30 ruling that he document the reasons why he found nothing of benefit for the defense in Pena-Ruiz’s application to become a police officer.