San Diego

Nathaniel Jordan, the former San Diego police officer who alleges that he was harassed by two officers last month after his testimony in the Sagon Penn retrial, has been charged with battery on a peace officer and resisting arrest.

The city attorney’s office filed the misdemeanor charges this week after police officials announced last month that four independent witnesses said they saw Jordan shout profanities, push an officer and provoke police into applying a choke hold to restrain him. The police declined to identify the witnesses.

“After reviewing all of the reports, there was no doubt in our minds that a crime was committed and it was appropriate to proceed with the charges,” said Stuart Swett, senior chief deputy city attorney.

Jordan, 35, who is black, claimed he was parked Aug. 25 in a handicapped space in a congested parking lot on El Cajon Boulevard when a plainclothes detective ordered him to move the vehicle. Jordan said he refused because he was waiting for two youths to get ice cream. He said Detective Ron King struck him in the back and an officer choked him after he was told to get out of the car.

At the time, Jordan said he believed the alleged attack by police stemmed from his testimony critical of Police Agent Donovan Jacobs in the Penn case. Penn, a 25-year-old black man, was acquitted of all major charges in the March 31, 1985, shooting death of Agent Thomas Riggs and the wounding of Jacobs and a civilian ride-along.

Jordan, an associate minister at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, said during Penn’s retrial that he did not want to testify because he feared police retaliation. He will be represented by Penn’s defense attorney, Milton Silverman.