Jacobs Contradicts Previous Witnesses : Says Officer Riggs Was 1st to Hit Penn With Baton; Denies Using Racial Slurs

Contradicting most prosecution witnesses, San Diego Police Agent Donovan Jacobs said Tuesday that he wasn’t involved in the initial fight with Sagon Penn a year ago that resulted in Penn shooting Jacobs, killing another police officer and wounding a civilian ride-along.

Jacobs, his disabled left arm in a sling, insisted that Agent Thomas Riggs was the first officer to use a night stick against Penn. Penn is charged with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder.

“I remember seeing Tom with his baton in front of his face deflecting blows from (Penn),” Jacobs said. “(Riggs) was backing off as he did that and Mr. Penn was coming at him. (Penn) was throwing punches at Tom’s face.”

Jacobs said he then ran over and struck Penn in the back four or five times with his police baton.

Numerous witnesses have testified during the seven-week trial that Jacobs first swung at Penn after the 24-year-old Southeast San Diego man refused to take his driver’s license out of his wallet.

In addition, defense attorney Milton Silverman produced an enlarged color photograph of Penn’s back that showed long bruises stretching from the top of the left shoulder to the lower right side. Jacobs agreed that he would expect to see a different pattern of injuries if they were caused by swings from his right hand instead of the left-handed Riggs.

But Jacobs, a seven-year police veteran, held to the story that he, not Riggs, was the second officer to join the fracas and strike Penn in the back.

Several other statements by Jacobs conflicted with previous testimony and evidence presented.

For example, Jacobs said he pulled over Penn’s pickup truck after he saw Penn make an illegal U-turn on 65th Street in Southeast San Diego. Several passengers in the truck have testified that Penn did not make a U-turn of any kind that evening.

The murder trial has heightened racial tensions in San Diego and damaged police relations with the black community, partly because the incident began when Jacobs mistook Penn for a street gang member and, according to witnesses, used racial insults against him.

Jacobs, 29, denied the allegations Tuesday, saying that the word “nigger” is not a part of his vocabulary. “I do not use racial slurs,” he said flatly.

Jacobs fought back tears on several occasions as he recalled how Penn grabbed his revolver and shot him once in the neck, then drove his police car over him as the officer lay wounded on a dirt driveway.

Jacobs said he could not recall any details of Penn shooting Riggs three times and then turning to a patrol car and twice shooting Sara Pina-Ruiz, a civilian who had accompanied Riggs as part of the police ride-along program.

“I remember looking up and seeing the undercarriage of the car,” Jacobs said. “I remember thinking I just got run over. It was the first time I felt any pain. I felt my chest crushed.”

Prosecutor Michael Carpenter began his questioning Tuesday morning in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Ben W. Hamrick by noting the injuries to Jacobs’ left arm and asking the officer to describe his physical condition. Jacobs said his left shoulder muscle does not have any nerve impulses, his arm is “pretty much paralyzed” and he has numbness in his right hand and both feet.

Jacobs appeared to grimace in pain on occasion as he leaned back in the witness stand.

During his testimony, Jacobs recalled details of how he started his evening shift on March 31, 1985. He said he forgot the key to one of his police lockers and had to borrow much of his equipment, including a SWAT bag, clipboard, night stick and ticket book. He said he arrested a burglary suspect before responding to a call of a black youth in Southeast San Diego who reportedly had threatened a rival gang member with a gun.

After interviewing a witness to the threat, Jacobs and Riggs in separate cars drove toward Encanto Recreation Center looking for a member of the black gang Crips, who they believed had the gun.

Jacobs answered nearly every question under direct and cross-examination by beginning with the words “I remember . . . “ or “My memory tells me . . . “

But when it came to responding to specific inquiries surrounding issues such as the reason he stopped Penn’s vehicle or the struggle with Penn, he said that his mind went blank.

“I don’t recall a lot of things,” Jacobs said. “I don’t know. I was in pretty bad shape. I got shot and run over. I don’t know what the mind thinks. . . . My memory’s not good.”

Jacobs said that he decided to stop Penn’s truck after it made an illegal U-turn and he saw a black youth in the cab wearing a black shirt and golf hat--clothing that identified him as a Crips gang member. Although other witnesses have testified that Crips wear blue colors, Jacobs testified that Crips wear either black or blue.

Jacobs told Carpenter that he still believes that Penn made an illegal U-turn, even though he is aware that police investigators tested the turning radius of the white Chevy pickup and found that it could not negotiate such a turn on 65th Street without driving onto the curb.

“I know (the U-turn) is a point of contention,” Jacobs said. “I repeat in my mind everything that day. I keep coming up with the same thing. . . . That’s what my memory tells me. It’s possible that (the truck) did not do that.”

Witness after witness called by the prosecution has testified that, once Penn got out of the truck and walked away, having refused to take his license out of his wallet, Jacobs punched him and beat him repeatedly with his night stick. As Riggs joined in and Jacobs kept swinging his baton, the violent confrontation moved down the driveway, where Jacobs jumped on top of Penn and continued to deliver hard blows with his fists, according to witnesses.

Jacobs provided jurors with a different version, saying he followed Penn and positioned himself to keep Penn from entering a nearby house.

“The initial battle between a police officer and Sagon Penn did not involve you?” Silverman asked.

Jacobs: “Not that I remember.”

Silverman: “You didn’t . . . grab (Penn), spin him around and hit him?”

Jacobs: “I don’t remember if I did or not.”

Silverman: “You didn’t pull out your stick and swing at his head?”

Jacobs: “I don’t remember doing that . . . “

Jacobs testified that Penn was the aggressor against Riggs. Jacobs said he came to Riggs’ defense by pounding Penn “four or five” times on the back with his night stick. When Penn didn’t react to the blows, Jacobs said, he assumed Penn was on the drug PCP. (Subsequent blood tests showed the absence of any drugs in Penn.)

The officer could not account for how the fight moved about 50 feet down the driveway or how he wound up on top of Penn.

But at the point where Jacobs got on top of Penn, his memory was clearer.

“I remember feeling a tug at my holster on my side,” Jacobs said. “I remember thinking he was going for my gun . . . I thought, ‘This guy’s going for my gun. He’s trying to kill me.’ I said enough is enough. I started hitting him with my fists in the upper chest.

“I remember seeing his face and the gun and a flash. . . . I remember I rolled off the ground. I remember thinking, ‘I have to get back up.’ . . . I knew I was shot. . . . I remember hearing several more shots. I recall the shots and people screaming.”