3 Suspects Cleared in Probe of Robbery in Baldwin Hills

Three young men arrested for attacking an elderly woman and then freed without bail by a Municipal Court judge have been cleared of any involvement in the crime, police said.

An investigation revealed that Curtis Lawson, 19, Aaron Thompson, 18, and Kipling Davis, 19, are not the suspects in the June 19 purse snatching incident in Baldwin Hills, said Cmdr. William Booth.

“The investigation removed all suspicions from these young men,” Booth said, adding that the district attorney’s office had declined to file charges against them.

The youths’ arrest received publicity after Rev. James Lawson, a prominent South Los Angeles minister and father of Curtis Lawson, asked Municipal Court Judge Sherman W. Smith Jr. to authorize their release on their own recognizance.

The three young men were arrested and booked on suspicion of robbery after witnesses to the attack--which left the 64-year-old victim hospitalized with a broken hip--followed the suspects to a friend’s house, Booth said.

Later, a timed cash register receipt indicated that the three youths had been in a music store at the time of the crime, which was confirmed by employees there.