Critical Transcript Seems Real, Burgreen Testifies at Penn Trial

Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen on Monday became the third key witness to testify that a Police Academy transcript crucial to the defense of suspected police killer Sagon Penn appeared to be authentic.

On the sixth day of a hearing into whether the transcript can be used as evidence in Penn’s retrial, Burgreen and two other police officials also directed criticism at Officer Jenny Castro, who held onto the document for at least eight months before turning it over to top officers during jury deliberations in Penn’s first trial.

Under questioning by defense attorney Milton J. Silverman, Burgreen testified that he believes that the 8-year-old transcript of a disciplinary counseling session with Jacobs is genuine, and that he has thought so since Castro gave it to him last May.

Last week, Jacobs--who was shot by Penn during a confrontation in Encanto in March, 1985, in which Police Agent Thomas Riggs was killed and civilian ride-along Sara Pina-Ruiz was wounded--testified that the transcript accurately reflected his attitudes during his training at the Police Academy in 1978.

Lt. Richard Bennett, one of the officers who chastised Jacobs in the counseling session for his willingness to use racial slurs and hostile behavior in the course of police work, also testified last week that he tape-recorded the session and had no reason to believe the transcript was inaccurate.

Silverman contends that the document undermines Jacobs’ credibility and supports the defense scenario that Jacobs instigated the shootings by beating Penn and attacking him verbally with racist remarks.

Burgreen, the department’s second-ranking officer, minimized the significance of the transcript, testifying that critiques by academy training officers have virtually no relevance to an officer’s conduct in the field.

He said he and Police Chief Bill Kolender were “disturbed” to learn that the document existed--in part because they knew it would engender controversy in the Penn case, in part because the transcript was an old personnel record that should have been destroyed long before.

“It was theoretical, it was 8 years old, and it was the sort of thing that should have been purged from a recruit’s file the day he hit the street,” Burgreen testified.

Burgreen contradicted Kolender’s testimony last week concerning a discussion the two men had when Burgreen first showed the transcript to the chief.

Kolender testified Wednesday that he and Burgreen from the outset had doubts concerning Castro’s story about finding the document in an office at the academy, setting it aside for months, tossing it in her car’s trunk and then finally remembering to give it to Burgreen after a meeting between top department officials and black and Latino police officers.

“We discussed the fact that it came up after all these months and the story that it was left on a desk and it didn’t smell very good, and we decided we didn’t know if it was real or not,” Kolender testified.

But Burgreen said he and Kolender did not learn Castro’s story until several days after she turned over the transcript.

Silverman also sought Monday to chip away at Kolender’s testimony that he did not recall telling reporters and editors for the San Diego Tribune that the transcript was authentic.

“I don’t remember,” Kolender had testified. “I’ve been misquoted before.”

Under questioning by Silverman, John McLaren, a reporter for the Tribune, testified that he was virtually certain he had written the portion of an Oct. 1 article about an interview with Kolender in which the police chief made the statement.

Kolender also told a Times reporter in June, shortly after the existence of the transcript became public knowledge, that he presumed the document was “accurate” and had “no reason to question” its authenticity.

Burgreen testified Monday that Castro should have been disciplined for her delay in turning over the transcript to police supervisors. “Something should have been done,” he said.

Castro testified last week that she was not disciplined after a police internal affairs investigation into the discovery of the transcript.

Also taking the stand Monday was Police Sgt. James Duncan, Castro’s supervisor at the academy for more than a year, who testified that he had doubts about her honesty. Duncan said he did not believe Castro’s claim to have set aside the transcript after finding it in an abandoned office and then to have forgotten about it for months.

“I think she probably found it in one of the files and for whatever reason held onto it, either for her own benefit or waiting for some time it could be more crucial, possibly gaining her publicity or something like that,” he said.

Duncan also complained that Castro violated the department’s chain of command by taking the transcript directly to an assistant chief and said she repeatedly had gone to Kolender’s office with complaints about mid-level supervisors.

“I found her to be unreliable and disloyal,” Duncan said.

Capt. Gerry Sanders, who heads the Police Academy, also criticized Castro for ignoring the chain of command. But Sanders said she was a “satisfactory officer” and that he had no reason to question her honesty.

Castro’s two days of testimony--which ended with her claim that she suffered from a memory disorder that made it impossible for her to recall names, dates and other details--was contradicted on a key fact Monday by Terrie Hubbard, a Police Academy secretary.

Hubbard said Castro showed her the transcript in July or August of 1985, a month or more before Castro claims to have discovered the document. “She said, ‘Look what I found,’ ” Hubbard said.

Penn, who has sat silently through the days of legal maneuvering, was found innocent last year of charges that he murdered Riggs and attempted to murder Jacobs. He is being retried on charges on which the first jury deadlocked, although heavily in favor of acquittal: 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.

Times staff writer Glenn F. Bunting contributed to this story.