Class-Action Claim Denied in Police Photo Incident

A federal judge Monday refused to allow a class-action claim against the Orange Police Department by a man who says officers questioned and photographed him during a “dragnet” because he fit the general description of a robbery suspect.

U.S. District Judge John G. Davies ruled that Ronald L. English may pursue his own civil rights lawsuit but said the deadline had passed for turning the case into a class action on behalf of all black people questioned and photographed by Orange police officers.

English, who at the time lived in Santa Ana, filed his $1-million lawsuit last April. It is scheduled to go to trial in May.

On Nov. 15, 1985, English, 29, was waiting for a bus at the corner of Tustin and Lincoln avenues when two Orange police officers searching for an armed robbery suspect approached him. The officers questioned English and took a Polaroid picture of him, according to his lawsuit, but he was not arrested.

English claims that he was questioned just because he was a black in a predominantly white city, the suit contends.

“The plaintiff in this case was just sitting on a bus bench when police came over with a gun and accosted him,” Richard P. Herman, a Newport Beach American Civil Liberties Union attorney, told the judge. The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People joined the ACLU in representing English.

Questioning several people who fit a general description of a suspect is a police “dragnet,” and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that police dragnets are unconstitutional, Herman told the judge.

Herman also asked Davies to order the Police Department to turn over its field identification reports, detailing encounters with people, so that he could determine exactly what the department’s policies are.

Davies refused, calling the request “a fishing expedition.”

Instead, Davies suggested that Herman ask Orange Police Chief Wayne Streed for the information.

“There really is not a policy per se to take photographs,” Bruce D. Praet, an assistant city attorney representing the department, said in an interview after the hearing. Praet, who served as an Orange police officer for nine years before becoming a lawyer, said that taking photos is one of the department’s “investigative tools.”

In 1985, Praet said, officers took photos of 616 people. That number represented 1.4% of the 42,000 people Orange police officers had some kind of official contact with that year. He said that officers take photographs “only when they feel it’s necessary to positively identify someone.”

“We adhere to the constitutional standards, taking a picture only when an officer has a reasonable suspicion that (the person) has been involved in a crime,” Praet explained, adding that the photos are used to prepare a lineup of suspects.

Praet said that English was stopped because he fit the general description of a man who had robbed a jewelry store in the City Mall about four miles from where English was waiting for a bus.

He said English gave a false name to the officers, who ran a check with the Department of Motor Vehicles but could find no such person.

Praet said the officers questioned English because he fit the description of the man they were looking for and that man happened to be black.

“If he had been green and the suspect was green, the officers would have stopped him,” Praet said.

English is serving a six-month sentence at a state prison in San Luis Obispo for violating his parole on another offense, Praet added.

Herman, English’s attorney, described his client as a “petty criminal” but said that he had no details about English’s prior convictions. He said English’s criminal record had nothing to do with this case.

Herman also disagreed with Praet’s assessment of why the police question and take photographs of certain people and not of others.

He said the real issue is racial discrimination because “Orange is a white city.”

Herman also said that English’s brother, Terry English, 31, died shortly before English’s encounter with the Orange police. Terry English died at UCI Medical Center in Orange 42 hours after he had been arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of PCP, according to police records.

Their parents, Mae and Abner English, filed a lawsuit against the City of Santa Ana after Terry’s death, according to court records.

Seal Beach Police Chief Stacy Picascia, president of the Orange County Police Chiefs and Sheriff Assn., said that taking photographs of people stopped for questioning is not a common police practice in Orange County, adding: “It’s unusual for us to do it.”

Picascia said most police officers fill out a field identification card when they question someone.