Jacobs Disputes Testimony of Racial Slurs, Brutality

Testifying for the second time in the Sagon Penn murder trial, San Diego Police Agent Donovan Jacobs on Wednesday scoffed at testimony by defense witnesses that he used racial slurs and unnecessary force while making four recent arrests.

Jacobs denied that he told a heroin addict, “I’ll kill your black ass,” called a motorcyclist “a punk,” twisted the arm of a 14-year-old burglary suspect and smashed a black man’s head against a wall.

“No, I didn’t do any of that or say any of that stuff,” Jacobs said emphatically. “I have never done anything like that.”

Jacobs also insisted that he has never called anyone “a black dude” during his seven-year law enforcement career, even though his former police sergeant testified earlier Wednesday that he had heard Jacobs use those words on several occasions.

Sgt. Dennis Johnson, a 15-year police veteran who supervised Jacobs in Southeast San Diego in 1984 and worked with him on the police SWAT team, said that, although he never heard Jacobs say “nigger,” he had overheard the officer use the term “black dude” around the police station.

Jacobs’ credibility has become a critical issue in the trial of Penn, who is accused of murder in the March 31, 1985, shooting death of Police Agent Thomas Riggs and attempted murder in the shooting of Jacobs and Sarah Pina-Ruiz, a civilian observer who was a passenger in Riggs’ patrol car.

In his earlier testimony, Jacobs clearly recalled numerous details leading up to the shootings. Those details were consistent with other witnesses’ accounts with the exception of three critical events.

Jacobs said he stopped Penn’s white pickup truck after Penn made an illegal U-turn. The passengers in the truck and other witnesses testified that Penn did not make such a turn.

Jacobs said Riggs was the first officer to engage in a physical confrontation with Penn. All other witnesses, including Pina-Ruiz, stated that the initial altercation was between Jacobs and Penn.

Jacobs said that he did not use racial slurs while trying to subdue Penn. Numerous defense witnesses have testified that Jacobs beat Penn with his police baton and told him, “You think you’re bad, nigger . . . I’ll beat your black ass” before the shootings in a Southeast San Diego driveway.

Defense attorney Milton Silverman has sought to prove that Jacobs deliberately lied when he gave his account of the incident.

Dr. Haig Koshkarian, a forensic psychiatry expert, testified April 23 that Jacobs concocted his own version of what took place to “avoid the unpleasant consequences” of his actions.

Koshkarian said he knew of no medical theory that could explain how Jacobs could describe many of the circumstances surrounding the shootings and at the same time have trouble accurately recalling other significant events that day.

“To be charitable, it is possible that psychologically (Jacobs) made something up and believed it,” Koshkarian said. “But that is rare. . . . It is usually found in someone who is psychotic.”

Three psychiatrists hired by the prosecution have contradicted Koshkarian, describing his conclusions as being highly speculative.

All three psychiatrists testified in the last week that Jacobs may have believed he was telling the truth. They attributed Jacobs’ apparent misstatements to “unconscious distortion of reality” brought on by the trauma of the shooting and feelings of guilt over a fellow officer’s death.

On Wednesday, Jacobs was recalled to the stand by Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter to reject claims by four defense witnesses that he used racial slurs and excessive force in other cases.

Jacobs denied that he ever touched Edward Serdi, who said he was riding his motorcycle to work in 1982 when Jacobs and another officer pulled him over after he shouted at them for cutting in front of him. Serdi filed a complaint against Jacobs, which was not sustained.

Serdi testified last month that Jacobs called him “you little punk,” shoved him against an embankment, pulled out his night stick, and said, “Look up at me . . . and tell me what you said so I can kick your ass up and down the street.”

Jacobs replied Wednesday: “Without a doubt I did not touch him, take my baton out or threaten him.”

Carpenter noted that Jacobs, his left arm in a sling from being run over by a patrol car driven by Penn as he fled the shooting scene, grimaced periodically during his testimony. The prosecutor asked Jacobs to describe the pain.

Jacobs said he suffered nerve damage in his hand and that his shoulder falls out of socket on occasion. He described the pain as a constant ache.

“It’s been brought to my attention that I make facial expressions,” Jacobs said. “I don’t want to give the jury false impressions.”