City Wants to Put Penn Case to Rest : ‘The system has spoken, and my police officers and I will abide by this decision.’ --Police Chief Bill Kolender

A subdued San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender said Thursday that his department accepts the innocent verdicts in the Sagon Penn police shootings and has learned some hard lessons from the case.

“The system has spoken, and my police officers and I will abide by this decision,” Kolender said. “ . . . I pray that time will heal all wounds.”

Many police officers, however, were not so magnanimous. Several called the jury’s decision an injustice.

“I’m upset,” said Officer Charles Graham, who added that “you have to do your job and control your feelings.”

Officer Rudy Basha, who patrols Southeast San Diego, expressed disappointment and said, “Hopefully, everyone won’t think they can shoot a cop and get away with it.”

Another patrolman said he had no comment because “what I have to say you couldn’t put into print anyhow.”

Kolender refused to offer any personal thoughts about the jury’s decision, even though it will probably mean that Penn, a 25-year-old black man, will walk free after killing Police Agent Thomas Riggs and wounding Police Agent Donovan Jacobs and civilian ride-along Sarah Pina Ruiz.

“My personal reaction is of no consequence,” Kolender said at a news conference called an hour after the verdicts were announced. “Regardless of how I would feel personally, like the rest of our officers I’m a professional and my responsibility is to police this city and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Kolender’s response Thursday contrasted with his emotional reaction to the innocent verdicts after the first trial, when a jury acquitted Penn of murder and attempted murder charges. Kolender said last year that he was “very disappointed” and that the decision would leave his officers “angry and sad.” In the past, the chief has referred to Penn as “a cop killer.”

On Thursday, Kolender also declined to reveal his opinion of whether Penn should face a third trial on the unresolved involuntary manslaughter charge and two assault charges. After the first trial, he said he hoped Penn would be prosecuted again.

This year, police administrators launched a departmentwide campaign aimed at preventing officers from making “inflammatory” comments in the wake of the innocent verdicts, according to Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen.

Officials at the Southeastern substation on Thursday refused to allow a reporter to speak with officers outside the building until they were ordered to do so by police headquarters.

“We’ve not only had a lot of discussions about what this verdict means, but we’ve had discussions about how should we respond,” Burgreen said. “Our job is not to brood. Our job is not to choose up sides and fight with the community.

“There is no time now to create divisiveness in the community. The trial is over. The verdict’s in. We know what the implications of that verdict are. Now the question is: How can we best get back to being an effective police department?”

Perhaps taking a cue from the department, the San Diego Police Officers Assn. decided not to offer any public reaction to the verdicts. “We’re just going to stay out of it,” POA Vice President Ron Newman said.

Many rank-and-file officers also declined to comment. Those who agreed to talk were not as vociferous as last year, when many officers said they were disgusted and claimed that the acquittal would result in “an open season on cops.”

Thursday’s verdicts came as little surprise, according to several officers. They blamed a judicial system that encourages “naive” jurors to rule in favor of defendants and allows skillful, highly paid defense attorneys to outfox prosecutors. One officer compared the match between prosecutor Michael Carpenter and defense attorney Milton J. Silverman to “a kindergartner going up against a college student.”

Officer Joe Bane said the shock of last year’s acquittal prepared him for Thursday’s verdicts.

“The first time I was really blown out,” Bane said. “This time I sort of expected it. It’s amazing what people get away with. This kind of thing happens every day in court.”

The lack of any expressed outrage by the department “shows you how things have changed,” said Lt. Mike Gillespie, a black police supervisor in Southeast San Diego. “What the chief said last time and this time shows that we live and we learn.”

Despite his subdued reaction, Kolender still insisted that Jacobs had acted properly the night of the shooting. Numerous witnesses had testified that Jacobs used excessive force and told Penn, “I’ll beat your black ass.”

“The fact that Sagon Penn was found not guilty on those counts does not make Donovan Jacobs guilty,” Kolender said. “It is our opinion, and that of the district attorney, that the case at the scene was handled as best it could be under the circumstances.”

When pressed further about Jacobs’ behavior, Kolender said: “No one has been looked at closer and . . . there was no evidence of misconduct.”

Jacobs, who has been working a light-duty assignment at police headquarters, went home early Thursday after learning of the verdict, a police spokesman said.

Witnesses gave conflicting testimony about Jacobs’ conduct, Burgreen said during a lengthy interview in his spacious, seventh-floor office overlooking the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge. The assistant chief said he does not know whether Jacobs used racial slurs or excessive force while trying to apprehend Penn.

“I’m not going to stand up and say Donovan Jacobs screwed it all up,” Burgreen said. “Now, that’s what some people would like us to say. . . . What we acknowledge is that there are lessons to be learned. And they’ve been learned.”

The Penn case led the City Council to form a Citizens Advisory Task Force on Police-Community Relations, which revamped human relations training for officers and proposed a citizens’ advisory panel. The Police Department organized an Officer Safety Task Force, which suggested more than 100 safety recommendations that were adopted by the department.

Burgreen said it is important for the department to move forward and leave the Penn case behind.

“This police department and this city will never quite be the same because of it and now it’s time to get on with it,” he said. “This case ought to be part of our past and it will be awfully nice to have that happen. It’s been looming over our heads.

“I’ve been reading every day the alleged comments that Donovan Jacobs made when the fight was on. And that has had a very negative impact on a lot of people in the city who . . . believe that that’s the way our cops act and that’s the way we want them to act and that is the truth.

“Whether or not that was the truth, it’s not for me to decide because I wasn’t there. But the public has to know and has to understand that’s not the way our cops are taught to act. That’s not the kind of cops we want.”