Officers in Alleged Torture Identified

A Huntington Park teen-ager Wednesday identified in court two of that city’s police officers as the ones who shocked him at least eight times with an electric “stun gun” to force a confession.

“I felt I was being burned and I couldn’t keep my legs still, “ 17-year-old Jaime Ramirez recalled during his testimony on the first day of a Los Angeles Municipal Court preliminary hearing for Officers William Lustig Jr., 31, and Robert Rodriguez, 25.

Ramirez, who indicated he cooperated fully with police, said he was stopped on Nov. 30 outside his home in the 2500 block of East 58th Street in Huntington Park by two other officers and asked to explain where he obtained a car stereo he was carrying in a paper bag.

The boy testified that when he did not answer the arresting officer’s questions, Lustig and Rodriguez were summoned. He said he then told police that he had bought the stereo equipment from a man.

Ramirez said Lustig called him a liar and took out a black box, turned it until sparks appeared, then brought it close to his face.

“He said if I didn’t tell him the truth, he would use it on me,” the youth testified.

Ramirez, who said his hands were cuffed behind his back and sitting in the back of a patrol car at the time, testified that the officers laughed as they repeatedly shocked him with the 50,000-volt instrument. He said Lustig and Rodriguez took turns shocking him on the thigh with the instrument while the arresting officer and a young woman officer stood outside the patrol car.

“It was a tremendous pain, and all I could do was ask for help and tell them to take it off my leg,” Ramirez said.

Put Into Cell

The youth said he was then taken to the station and put in jail, where he told another officer about what had happened. After that, Ramirez said, he was interviewed by several officers about the incident.

The district attorney declined to file theft charges against the youth, who has since filed a $2-million claim against Huntington Park.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge David M. Horwitz will determine whether the two officers will stand trial in Superior Court on a felony charge of unnecessary assault and beating under the color of authority.

If tried and convicted Lustig and Rodriguez could face up to six years in prison.