Academy Transcript Accurate, Jacobs Says

In court testimony that buoys efforts by defense attorneys for suspected police killer Sagon Penn, San Diego Police Agent Donovan Jacobs confirmed Friday that he was the subject of a disciplinary session while a recruit at the Police Academy in 1978 and said a controversial transcript of the meeting “accurately reflects” his attitudes at the time.

Although Jacobs could recall few details of the session, he said, he agreed under questioning by defense attorney Milton J. Silverman that statements attributed to him in the transcript are consistent with his beliefs eight years ago.

During the taped counseling session, Jacobs was chastised by three training officers for demonstrating a willingness to use hostile behavior and racial slurs in police work. His testimony Friday represents perhaps the most conclusive evidence to date that the session actually occurred and is fairly represented by the transcript.

Silverman is attempting to prove the authenticity of the 11-page document in hopes of using it as evidence in the retrial of Penn, who is charged with killing Police Agent Thomas Riggs and wounding Jacobs and civilian Sarah Pina-Ruiz, a ride-along in the patrol car when the confrontation occurred in Encanto in March, 1985.

The defense attorney considers the transcript the most crucial piece of evidence in his arsenal as he prepares for the retrial. Silverman argues that Jacobs provoked Penn and caused him to shoot in self-defense by assaulting him and making racial remarks.

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge J. Morgan Lester ruled that the transcript is relevant because it sheds light on Jacobs’ character and could be used to contradict the officer’s testimony that he does not have a propensity for hostile behavior.

Despite that victory, however, Silverman still must convince Lester that the document is authentic. The Police Academy transcript from August, 1978, surfaced mysteriously last summer during Penn’s first trial while the jury was deliberating.

After proceedings Friday, which marked the fourth day of a pretrial hearing on the transcript, Silverman expressed confidence that the judge would affirm its authenticity.

“All I need to do is prove that the document is what it purports to be,” Silverman said. “We’re doing that in spades.”

Specifically, Silverman cited Jacobs’ testimony that every statement in the transcript--from the officer’s belief that using “professional profanity” on the job is in some instances appropriate to his disapproval of homosexuality--accurately represents his beliefs while an academy cadet.

“That’s highly corroborative,” Silverman said. “If (the statements in the transcript) were way off the wall, not at all representative, then we’d have a different story.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Phillips, meanwhile, said: “It’s going to take a lot more than (Jacobs’ testimony) to convince me that the thing is real. We still haven’t ruled out the possibility that we’re dealing with a forgery.”

Phillips noted that Jacobs testified that he could not recall actually making the statements that appear in the transcript.

“There’s also the mysterious appearance of the document all of a sudden after all these years, and a number of other things that figure into this,” Phillips said.

Phillips conceded, however, that Silverman’s demonstration that the transcript is consistent with Jacobs’ attitudes in 1978 “is a factor that the judge may fairly and legally consider” in coming to a ruling on the document’s authenticity. “It will be a discretionary call for the judge,” he said.

Silverman began his questioning of Jacobs Friday by establishing that the disciplinary session did in fact take place. He then asked the officer to relate what he remembered of the meeting.

“I remember we went over, had a discussion of the use of profanity by a police officer and whether or not it was right,” Jacobs answered. “I remember someone commenting about the condition of my shoes. That’s about all I remember.”

Silverman then methodically asked Jacobs to read the transcript section by section and respond to the question, “Does that adequately reflect your attitudes on Aug. 4, 1978?” That date is the day of the counseling session.

Jacobs, appearing calm and without the sling he wore on his arm during the first Penn trial last year, replied, “Yes,” after reading each portion of the document. When Silverman asked him whether there were statements that inaccurately reflect his attitudes in 1978, Jacobs replied, “I don’t believe so.”

In his brief cross-examination of Jacobs, Phillips sought primarily to establish that the officer had no way of knowing whether the transcript represents an accurate description of what transpired during the counseling session.

Earlier in the day, Lester authorized Silverman to send the transcript to a forensic lab and have it checked for fingerprints. Although Phillips protested that the list of people who have handled the document is extensive and fingerprinting would be of “very minimal value,” Lester said that he could see “various relevances to it.”

Silverman argued that the fingerprints could help him “solve the mystery” of how the transcript landed in an unused office where Police Officer Jenny Castro discovered it in the fall of 1985.

Also Friday, Police Lt. Richard Bennett completed his turn on the stand, with Silverman attempting to hammer home earlier testimony that Bennett was present at the counseling session with Jacobs and has no reason to doubt the authenticity of the transcript.

Under questioning Friday, Bennett said the range of troubles covered in the disciplinary session with Jacobs was unusually broad. While academy recruits frequently are chastised for making derogatory comments about homosexuals or using racial epithets or any number of other things, it is rare that all of those topics would be at issue, he said.

“How many counseling sessions have you been in that covered such a wide range of issues (as Jacobs’)?” Silverman asked.

“At one sitting? I don’t recall any,” Bennett answered.

In another development, one that could bolster the prosecution’s contention that the transcript may be a fake, Bennett testified that he has occasionally encountered forged documents in the Police Department during his career.

“An example might be an officer being funny, humorous, or making some kind of statement with regard to conditions or grievances,” Bennett said. “Many times those statements end up on these kinds of forms.”

After a four-month trial, Penn was acquitted last June of charges that he murdered Riggs and attempted to murder Jacobs. The jury deadlocked--heavily in favor of acquittal--on four other charges: voluntary manslaughter in Riggs’ death, attempted murder in the shooting of Pina-Ruiz, and attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon in the wounding of Jacobs.

Penn’s defense team argued that those charges should be dismissed because of alleged police and prosecutorial misconduct in the first trial, but the state Supreme Court refused to review the plea.

The pretrial hearing will continue Monday, with jury selection scheduled to begin later in the week.