D.A. Says Prisoners’ Allegations of Torture by Stun Gun Unproven

The Orange County district attorney’s office has concluded that evidence failed to prove allegations by five inmates that they were tortured last year with electronic stun guns by Huntington Beach city jailers.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, in announcing the conclusions of his department’s 11-month investigation into the accusations, said Tuesday that the officers’ use of force “was not excessive, based on all the evidence and the literature” investigators gathered.

The findings became public on the same day that a trial was scheduled to begin in Los Angeles federal court of a lawsuit accusing Huntington Beach and 22 city police officers of violating the inmates’ civil rights. The case awaits courtroom assignment.

Marc C. Block, the Huntington Beach attorney representing the plaintiffs, said he thinks the timing of Wade’s announcement was no coincidence.

‘Nothing but Cozy Politics’

“The district attorney’s office hand-delivered it to my office yesterday afternoon, and the trial was to begin today?” Block said Tuesday. “The idea seems to be to take a long time with the investigation and everything will die down. It’s nothing but cozy politics, somebody from the city calling somebody they know, maybe several people, and asking the D.A. for a favor. . . . They had a tight case.”

Block said he may ask the Orange County Grand Jury to examine the case.

Wade was interviewed for this story before Block commented on the case. The deputy district attorney could not be reached later in the night.

The criminal investigation, Wade said, encompassed interviews with 40 people and was delayed by difficulties in finding potential witnesses who might have seen any of the incidents while they were in city jail. He said investigators also spent considerable time attempting to amass a “body of literature” about stun guns so “we could get some unanimity as to what this device should do.”

Police Chief Pleased

Huntington Beach Police Chief Grover (Bud) Payne said he was pleased with the district attorney’s conclusion.

“The use of force in each of these cases was appropriate, each of the defendants was very combative and it’s my belief that the stun gun is a more humane instrument to use than, say, the choke hold or the night stick,” Payne said.

Despite that vow of support for the device, known as the Nova XR 5000 Stun Gun, Payne said he has barred use of the guns pending the outcome of the civil rights trial in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit accuses the 22 jailers, officers at the facility at that time and a nurse who was in the jail during at least one of the incidents with assault and battery, abuse of authority and cruel and unusual punishment during the inmates’ arrests from May to December, 1986. It seeks $25 million in punitive damages plus other unspecified damages.

The five alleged victims are Eric Anderson, 22, Thomas Lyday, 23, and Kevin Reighter, 27, all of Huntington Beach; Scott Singer, 26, of Stanton, and Gregory Miller, 17, of Reseda.

Miller alleged that he was stunned with the electrical device last summer near the beach by an undercover officer; the others alleged that they were zapped with a stun gun within the Huntington Beach City Jail.

The Police Department has never disputed the stunnings in the jail.

‘Malicious Lawsuits’

“I pulled them (stun guns) back right after I was appointed chief because I realized we had an attorney who was advertising for clients who had been arrested where a stun gun had been used,” Payne said, referring to the plaintiffs’ lawyer. Payne was not named in the federal lawsuit but has been called to testify.

“That made me believe that every time we used a stun gun we would be faced with one of these malicious lawsuits,” Payne added. “That’s expensive to fight, so we will use more traditional means in the jail for the time being.”

Block denied advertising for victims of stun guns. He asked why police, rather than attacking him, don’t “clean up their own act first.”

Referring to a client’s claim that he was jolted 50-60 times by a stun gun, he said: “How dare they treat a human being like this? It sounds like something that goes on in South America.”

An FBI investigation started after Block filed the civil rights suit is continuing.