Probe of San Ysidro Row Called One-Sided : Officers Cleared in Fracas With Latino Family

An internal police probe of a Feb. 8 fracas between 11 San Diego police officers and a Latino family in San Ysidro has cleared the officers of charges that they used excessive force.

But defense attorneys claimed Friday that investigators only considered the police version of the fight and failed to interview all witnesses. And one family member said investigators told her that the probe was far from closed.

Rosa Mogo, 38, and three of her sons--Richard, 22; Gerardo, 18, and Alex, 17--were arrested in the incident and charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. The family and neighbors who witnessed the fracas said that the family was beaten by police, who barged into the Mogos’ apartment when responding to a nearly three-hour-old complaint of a noisy party at another apartment.

Police Cmdr. Keith Enerson said the investigation did not support charges by the family that they were kicked and beaten with batons and flashlights by officers. Two officers who answered the complaint arrived at the Mogos’ apartment and were beaten by family members, who took a baton away from one officer, said Enerson. Some of the nine officers who answered the call for help were also attacked by the family, police said.

Enerson said family members and other witnesses to the melee were not interviewed because the family’s lawyers ordered them not to talk to police. A woman who said that she telephoned to complain about a loud party at the apartment of Sylvia Soltero also refused to be interviewed by police, Enerson said. After the incident, Soltero told The Times that she had thrown a loud birthday celebration but that the party had been over for almost three hours by the time police arrived.

Defense attorney Thomas Ulovec heatedly denied that witnesses had been ordered not to talk to police. Ulovec, who represents Richard Mogo, said that Mrs. Mogo and her sons were advised by defense attorneys not to discuss the incident with police, but only because they had already been charged with felonies.

“That shouldn’t surprise the police. Any good defense attorney would have done the same thing. My client was already facing felony charges,” Ulovec said.

“Why should he talk to them anymore? . . . The internal affairs investigation itself was curious. . . . we weren’t expecting the police to admit wrongdoing. . . . Remember, these people are facing felony charges. The police would’ve been hard put to say, ‘Yes, our officers used excessive force,’ after charging the family with felony assault.”

Ulovec and attorney Pierre Pfeffer, who is representing Rosa Mogo, said that family members who were not charged in the incident offered to talk to police but that investigators refused to interview them. Family spokeswoman Van Doren Mogo said that some neighbors who witnessed the fracas also offered to talk to police but were not interviewed.

Enerson said that some witnesses refused to talk to internal affairs investigators after they were told that their anonymity could not be guaranteed.

On Friday, there was still some confusion over whether the internal investigation was in fact complete. Enerson insisted that the investigation was closed and that police officials were only waiting for the report to be typed. But Ulovec and Van Doren Mogo said that internal affairs investigators led them to believe they were still interviewing witnesses.

“I talked with two investigators from internal affairs today who told me that the investigation was far from closed,” said Van Doren Mogo. “The officers told me that they planned to talk to additional witnesses.”

Ulovec said he had talked with internal affairs investigators on Wednesday and that he was told that the incident was still under investigation.

Pfeffer said the report will not have an impact on the family’s case.

“It really doesn’t make much difference to us what the report said. Nothing has changed regarding our contention that Mrs. Mogo and her family reacted the way they did in self-defense,” Pfeffer said.

” . . . The police made a mistake here. . . . We see several inconsistencies among the reports filed by officers involved in this incident, and there are tremendous inconsistencies among the reports given by civilian witnesses and those given by police.”

Enerson said the investigation revealed that Rosa Mogo attacked officers with a steak knife and attempted to stab one officer, who was saved by an armored vest. According to police, the knife’s handle was broken when police wrestled it away from the woman.

But family members said that the handle was already broken and the knife was lying on the kitchen table, where it had been left by a teen-age daughter after she peeled some lemons earlier in the evening.

Police also said that an officer pulled his service revolver on Mrs. Mogo when she raised the knife. But the Mogos said that police never drew their weapons.

Thirteen-year-old Rosa Mogo said that, during the fight, one officer slammed his knee into her crotch, causing her to urinate on his knee.

“That never happened,” Enerson said.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for the four Mogos on March 19.