Kolender Tapes Apology Over Jacobs Remarks

San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender released Thursday a videotaped “explanation” to his officers about his controversial remarks to two newspapers that police agent Donovan Jacobs lied in his account of a shooting that left another officer dead and Jacobs seriously injured.

In a 90-second tape that was to be shown to all officers in every district beginning Thursday night, Kolender apologized to Jacobs for remarks that he made to the San Diego Union and the Tribune. He attempted to defuse a controversy that has left some of his officers bitter and angry by explaining that he meant to say that Jacobs “unintentionally lied.”

The Tribune did report that Kolender said that Jacobs had lied “unintentionally,” while the Union quoted Kolender as saying that Jacobs lied, but “not on purpose.” Kolender did not withdraw the statements attributed to him in the newspapers.

Instead, Kolender said in his message that Jacobs “handled the incident in Southeast San Diego to the best of his ability,” but he added that “we know the facts do not substantiate what Donovan feels.”

Although Kolender’s remarks have created a storm of controversy, they did not open any new ground in the case.

Sagon Penn was acquitted in June of killing Police Agent Thomas Riggs and of most other serious charges against him stemming from the wounding of Jacobs and a civilian ride-long in the March 31, 1985, shooting. During the trial, prosecutor Michael Carpenter admitted that Jacobs’ testimony was not supported by the facts in the case. After the trial, several jurors said that they thought Jacobs lied on the witness stand.

The controversy erupted Wednesday afternoon, when the Tribune reported that Kolender told the newspaper that Jacobs had lied about the shooting in Encanto. Kolender protested that his meeting with the Tribune was off the record.

On Thursday, the Union ran a similar story in its morning edition and both papers said that their meetings with Kolender were held with the understanding that everything, unless specifically excepted, was on the record.

Later Thursday, Kolender admitted that he did not ask that the meetings be held off the record.

“It was my assumption that the meeting I was having with them was off the record. I found out later that it was not off the record. It was my fault. I should’ve asked. I made an assumption. It was wrong,” said Kolender in his videotaped message.

The chief said that he apologized to Jacobs and ended by saying, “I feel that that young man has been through enough.”

At the trial that polarized the black community and the police, Jacobs said that he stopped Penn because he thought Penn was a gang member. Numerous witnesses testified that Jacobs, who is white, started a fight with Penn, who is black. The witnesses said that Jacobs began beating Penn with a baton and hurled racial slurs at him. But Jacobs testified that it was Riggs who struck Penn first and that he went to Riggs’ aid.

Jacobs also denied calling Penn “nigger,” although several witnesses testified that Jacobs used the racial epithet and that he told Penn he was going to kick his “black ass.” During the scuffle Penn grabbed Jacobs’ service revolver, using it to kill Riggs and wound Jacobs and the civilian ride-along. Penn escaped in Jacobs’ police car, running over Jacobs in the process.

Dr. Wait Griswold, a prosecution psychiatrist, testified at the trial that Jacobs’ recollection of the incident was marred by the trauma of the shooting and that he suffered partial memory loss. A defense psychiatrist testified that Jacobs did not suffer memory loss and deliberately lied.

Milton Silverman, who is Penn’s attorney, said Thursday that Kolender is “only admitting what everybody else knows . . . that Jacobs lied.” Silverman said that he does not plan to call Kolender as a witness if Penn is forced to stand trial again on lesser charges. He has appealed for a dismissal of the charges to the California Supreme Court.

Silverman, however, took issue with a quote attributed to Kolender in the Tribune. In a reference to the black witnesses in the case, Kolender said that “some of the black people lied.”

“That’s an outrageous statement. It’s a racist statement . . . It’s along the same lines as Dr. Griswold’s testimony about the cultural and ethnic consideration of the black witnesses, which translates into ‘these black folk lie.’ I mean, it was shown at the trial that many of the witnesses were honest, church-going men and women,” Silverman said.

Lt. Skip DiCerchio, head of the San Diego Police Officers Assn., said that he met with Kolender on Wednesday night and is satisfied with the chief’s explanation. DiCerchio expressed regret over the incident but said that he was not surprised by Kolender’s remarks.

“Actually, it was a poor choice of words by the chief when he said that Donovan lied. The chief explained to me that he didn’t think that Donovan deliberately lied, but because of the trauma (from the incident) it was his belief that he had some of the facts distorted,” DiCerchio said.

DiCerchio said that some officers have expressed concern over Kolender’s remarks, but said that Kolender’s videotaped message should soothe the controversy.

“Officers are like the rest of the public. They read the headlines but fail to find out what’s behind the headline . . . I believe that the chief is 100% behind Donovan Jacobs,” DiCerchio said.

But not all officers were mollified by the chief’s explanation.

“It’s pretty late to come out with explanations. He’s already damaged the guy’s (Jacobs) career. Nothing that he says now can change that,” said an officer who heard a tape recording of Kolender’s message from a reporter.