Black Scientist Tells of Run-in With Policeman : Officer Just Doing His Job, Chief Kolender, Others Say

Walter Woodson thought nothing of the San Diego police car that drove by one night last month as he waited at a bus stop in La Jolla for a ride home after work.

But when Officer Raymond Battrick circled back, flashed a high-beam light on his face and demanded to know what Woodson was doing, the black man began to realize that something was terribly wrong. What happened next, in Woodson’s view, was straight from a 1950s film clip of civil rights abuses.

The officer shoved Woodson behind a bench, handcuffed him, pushed him into the back seat of a patrol car and took him to the police station, Woodson said in an interview last week. When he asked Battrick what he had done to deserve such treatment, Woodson said, the officer told him, twice: “I don’t like your face.”

“At first, he said he was going to take me to a detoxification center even though I wasn’t intoxicated at all,” Woodson said. “He said he was going to take me downtown to find out everything there is to know about me.”

Woodson, 32, a research scientist at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, had never been arrested before. But the officer drove Woodson to County Jail for failing to pay a jaywalking ticket.

Black leaders say the Jan. 2 encounter is symptomatic of the way San Diego police officers treat black citizens spotted in white, upper-class sections of the city such as La Jolla. They are appalled that such treatment could continue in the wake of recent cases such as the Sagon Penn police shootings in 1985 and a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits San Diego police from detaining people for no reason.

Woodson filed a complaint with police officials, who investigated the incident and determined that Battrick’s actions were appropriate. Battrick said he initially approached Woodson because his shoulder-length dreadlocks matched the description of a suspect wanted for assaulting a police officer earlier in the day in Balboa Park.

Woodson said he provided two pieces of photo identification to Battrick, who knew the suspect in the Balboa Park beating was named Earl Lester Williams, according to police.

San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender defended Battrick’s actions, saying the officer “did not believe” Woodson’s story. Kolender said Battrick had no choice but to take Woodson to jail once he learned of the outstanding jaywalking violation.

“There are a lot of instances where the officers have shown great sensitivity,” Kolender said. “Instances of conflict happen by nature of the job. On occasion, we get a complaint from people regarding our actions and we investigate it. On occasion, we find out we are wrong and we take action.”

Cmdr. Calvin Krosch, head of the police internal affairs unit, said he could not discuss any details of the internal investigation but confirmed that police did not rule against Battrick.

“When he contacted him, Woodson was evasive and hostile,” Krosch said. “Woodson called him a liar. He thought this was probably the guy he was looking for, brought him downtown, ran a records check and it wasn’t the guy.”

Battrick could not be reached for comment.

“This is similar to the Penn situation,” said Edward Lawson, a black man who was detained and arrested 15 times in two years, mostly in San Diego, for violating vagrancy laws that were later judged unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. “They stopped the wrong nigger, not a sleazo or junkie. (Woodson) is probably more respectable than you or me or half the people we will meet today.”

Daniel Weber, a San Diego attorney recently elected president of the local NAACP chapter, said he has met with Woodson, and the NAACP is investigating the case. Weber called police treatment of blacks “a serious problem.”

“Serious allegations have been made and continue to be made against the San Diego Police Department relative to their treatment of people of color in this city,” Weber said. “Something needs to be done about that. All of those people certainly cannot be making up these allegations.”

Walter Woodson was hired last fall at the UCSD Department of Neuroscience to conduct vision research after seven years of study in Europe. Woodson’s academic credentials include a B.S. degree from Syracuse University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in neuroscience from the University of Paris. He speaks with a French accent.

Friends and co-workers used words such as “gentle,” “nice,” “honest” and “intelligent” to describe Woodson, who was born and raised in New York City.

“The whole thing just sort of smells,” said Kent Keyser, a UCSD postgraduate research associate who works with Woodson. “He comes to this country, is here six or seven months, and this happens. It sort of doesn’t make us look very good. Aside from the wrongness of it, it’s too bad because the San Diego Police Department has a history of concern at the top but trouble on the street. When Walter told me that the officer said he had the right to beat him, I was speechless. I can’t imagine that.

“What bothers me so much is that if this were Georgia or somewhere in the South, it might be a little bit more understandable. But in Southern California, one does not think of having this sort of difficulty.”

Woodson, who rides the bus each day from Mission Beach to UCSD and back, had worked late Jan. 2 when he walked to the bus stop on La Jolla Village Drive carrying a research paper for a National Institute of Health grant.

Sometime after 9 p.m., Battrick pulled up and approached Woodson as he waited alone at the bus stop.

“He asked me what am I doing there,” Woodson recalled. “I said, ‘I’m waiting for a bus.’ ”

According to Krosch, Battrick informed Woodson that he was being detained because he matched a description of a suspect who had assaulted a police officer earlier in the day. But Woodson said that Battrick told him “there is someone in La Jolla who’s stealing” and it could be Woodson.

Woodson said that he became “angry” that he was being delayed for no reason.

“I told him he was lying (and) that if I had been a white man, he would not have stopped me,” Woodson said. “He said it’s not true. I saw that perhaps that I had been wrong, so I apologized to him.”

Battrick asked for identification and Woodson provided his UCSD identification card and a French ID card with his nationality and place of birth. Both carried his photo.

“I had given him enough of my identification to establish who I was,” Woodson said. “He told me he was taking me down because he didn’t like my face. This is his exact words.”

Woodson alleges that Battrick threw his research papers and both ID cards on the ground, handcuffed him, pushed him behind the bench at the bus stop, then threw him into the back of the police car. Battrick eventually picked up the papers and handed them to Woodson.

Battrick said he was taking Woodson to a detoxification center because he was drunk, Woodson said. He said he had had two beers earlier in the day.

During the ride downtown, Woodson said, he told Battrick: “If you were a good-natured person, you would know that you do not have a reason in your heart to take me downtown.” He said Battrick told him a second time that he didn’t like his face.

“He was continually insulting me, saying how much he didn’t like me,” Woodson recalled. “He was saying he had the right to beat me. I told him I pay so much in taxes. He told me he is going to show me what my tax money is doing.”

At the police station, Battrick checked Woodson’s criminal background and found that he had failed to pay a recent jaywalking ticket issued near his home in Mission Beach.

“He said he is not going to take me to the detoxification center because he found a jaywalking ticket I had neglected to pay,” Woodson said. “I told him I can pay the jaywalking ticket. He said no, he’s going to take me to jail. I told him I don’t want to go to jail.”

Woodson said that, when he asked Battrick how long he would have to stay in jail, the officer responded, “perhaps for the whole weekend.”

Before he was driven to jail, Battrick asked another officer if Woodson was the same man who had beaten Officer Larry Roser earlier in the day, according to Woodson. The officer said no, Woodson said.

At the County Jail, Battrick took Woodson inside for processing at 11:14 p.m.

“He’s saying to the other policeman, ‘Look at Dr. Woodson there.’ I thought his conduct was despicable,” Woodson said.

“I was very scared. I didn’t know what they were going to do. I had my hands up in the air.”

Sheriff’s Department officials, who run the jail, said they released Woodson at 11:45 p.m. on a promise to appear in court on the jaywalking citation.

“It’s the age-old problem of overcrowding,” said Sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde. “We simply don’t have room in the jails for people arrested for that kind of offense. It was a Friday night. We offered him a seat for half an hour until we got to him.”

Woodson said he borrowed money from a friend and took a taxi home from the jail, arriving after 2 a.m.

“I was quite saddened by that incident,” said Woodson, who recently paid $50 to clear the jaywalking citation. “As a matter of fact, I was quite sick and nervous the next day.”

Woodson said that associates suggested he tell his story to the media. Woodson said he preferred to avoid publicity and instead filed a complaint with the Police Department.

“At first, I had considered if it’s possible to just get an apology from (Battrick),” Woodson said. “I knew that is all I wanted, basically, but he obviously felt he was right and justified in what he was doing.”

Within a couple of days of after the complaint was filed, Sgt. Lawrence Moratto interviewed Woodson at work.

“He seemed like quite a decent man,” Woodson said. “Before he left, he told me to don’t call the newspapers. I told him I would respect his request.”

When asked if he advised Woodson not to contact the media, Moratto said: “I would never and can’t control anyone’s right to talk to anyone they want to.”

Moratto declined to comment on the police investigation. Woodson said that Moratto told him that Battrick denied any of the alleged conduct.

“But the problem is he had no reason to take me from the bus station no matter what the results of their investigation say,” Woodson said.

Woodson agreed to discuss the incident with The Times after he was contacted by a reporter last week.

“It really has to be brought to the attention of people that there is perhaps a problem with the policemen on the street,” he said.

Woodson’s arrest is the lastest in a series of recent cases involving alleged police harassment of minorities.

In December, black leaders criticized the Police Department for a policy that permitted two officers on horseback to walk a black man on a leash and lead him for several blocks in Southeast San Diego in front of outraged black residents. The man had been arrested for walking a dog without a leash and furnishing false information to police. Police changed the policy the next day to prohibit similar occurrences.

Police are investigating a Jan. 16 confrontation with a Latino family that sent two members of the family to the hospital and outraged neighbors who witnessed the melee. Police officials, who initially described the incident as a routine matter, agreed to investigate after receiving complaints from San Diego Catholic Diocese officials and a Latino community group.

On Tuesday, police officers arrested Marvin Davis Jr., the son of a black minister in Southeast San Diego, in front of his parents’ house on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. Davis was stopped at 5 a.m. for driving a car with the headlights off, and the stop developed into a fight with officers. Police are investigating a complaint of police brutality by the man’s father, Marvin Davis Sr., pastor of Mason Church of God in Christ. Davis was booked into County Jail on several warrants involving numerous vehicle code violations.

Weber, the local NAACP president, called for top city officials to send a message to the Police Department that such abusive treatment will not be tolerated.

“The City Council, the city manager and the police chief must establish a policy that must be clear when one of their officers violates a person’s rights,” Weber said. “Stern, severe action must be taken against those officers.”