2 Ex-Officers Tortured Teen, Jury Decides

Two former Huntington Park police officers were convicted Thursday of torturing a handcuffed, teen-age burglary suspect with an electric stun gun to extract a confession.

William J. Lustig, 32, and Robert Rodriguez, 26, were convicted of felony assault under the color of authority and misdemeanor inhumane treatment of a prisoner.

But the Los Angeles Superior Court jury found them innocent of the allegation of inflicting great bodily injury upon the victim, Jaime Ramirez, 18, of Huntington Park.

The two officers were fired in December, 1986, and the convictions bar them from future police work, said the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. James E. Koller.

Outside court, jurors said they had little difficulty convicting Lustig, but struggled over whether Rodriguez was guilty. Except for statements by Ramirez, there was no testimony that Rodriguez used the stun gun. Deliberations began Monday afternoon.

“We didn’t necessarily believe he (Rodriguez) used the stun gun,” said jury foreman Ralph Kennon, a 63-year-old retired engineer. “We did feel he aided and abetted Officer Lustig.”

Lustig and Rodriguez, who are free on their own recognizance, face a maximum of three years in prison when they are sentenced Jan. 13. The two former officers sat in silence as the verdict was read, then left the courtroom through a back door, avoiding reporters.

Rodriguez’s attorney, William J. Hadden, said his client was “extremely disappointed.”

“He was at a location where a juvenile was being abused. But he did not participate in it,” the lawyer said, adding that he had expected a hung jury at worst.

Lustig’s attorney, Richard A. Levine, left court immediately after the verdict without comment.

Kennon said the jury did not consider the small burns Ramirez received during the interrogation to be great bodily injury.

Koller said he could not remember when the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office prosecuted another case in which officers were accused of torturing a prisoner to extract a confession.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven A. Sowders, head of special investigations, said: “I think that the prosecution of the case and the verdict . . . sends a strong message that this type of conduct will not be permitted in the criminal justice system.”

Ramirez said officers burned him with a stun gun shortly after 4 a.m. on Nov. 30, 1986. Ramirez, then 17, was carrying a paper bag containing car stereo equipment when he was arrested by Officer Eric Ault in front of the 58th Street home where he lived with his parents. Ault handcuffed Ramirez and placed him in the back of his police car before Rodriguez, and then Lustig, drove up, according to testimony.

Ramirez told the three officers he bought the stereo equipment from a man for $25.

Shocked by Officers

The youth told the jury that Rodriguez shocked him three times on his upper left leg before Lustig took the stun gun and shocked him four times during questioning.

A forensic pathologist, testifying for the prosecution, said Ramirez had 13 separate, small ulcerations representing electrical burns from about four applications of the stun gun.

At the police station later that morning, Ramirez admitted that he had stolen the equipment and told another officer that he had been shocked during questioning.

The Police Department initiated an internal investigation and notified the district attorney’s office on Dec. 2. A district attorney’s investigator found an unauthorized, 50,000-volt Nova stun gun in Lustig’s police locker the same day.

Two other people were present during the interrogation. Rodriguez’s brother, Donald Rodriguez, was on a civilian ride-along, and Ault was accompanied by Explorer Scout Maria Fragoso, a 17-year-old high school student.

Ault, Fragoso and Donald Rodriguez testified they saw Lustig leaning or reaching in toward Ramirez as the prisoner moaned in pain. None saw Lustig touch the stun gun to the teen-ager’s leg. The three testified Rodriguez was standing back, and they never saw him move toward Ramirez when the prisoner cried out.

Robert Rodriguez took the stand and declared his innocence. He testified that he was standing about six feet away when he saw Lustig reach toward Ramirez. Lustig held the stun gun in his right hand as he moved away from the car and said Ramirez apparently was telling the truth, Rodriguez testified.

Rodriguez said he did not try to stop Lustig because officers do not interfere with one another. Ault said he could not explain why he did not intervene. Neither Ault nor Rodriguez told their superiors of the incident; they testified an informal code of silence keeps one officer from turning in another.

Lustig did not testify.

The district attorney’s office granted Ault immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. He received a disciplinary suspension and returned to duty.

When Lustig and Rodriguez were charged, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said the Huntington Park Police Department had a history of brutality allegations “embarrassing to all law enforcement.” He opened an investigation, which is still pending, into several allegations of excessive force and other alleged improprieties by officers.

In one of those cases, the district attorney’s office is investigating the death of Jose Robles, 32, who died last September shortly after being taken into custody by three Huntington Park officers. An autopsy failed to reveal the cause of death and toxicological tests are pending, a coroner’s spokesman said. Two officers were suspended in connection with the incident.

Huntington Park Mayor Tom Jackson defended the city’s Police Department, saying its reputation was stained by a couple of bad officers.

“I hope it’s over with and we can get that behind us,” Jackson said. “The city has obviously never, and would never, allow such a thing.”

Ramirez, alleging his civil rights were violated, has filed a $10-million federal lawsuit naming as defendants Lustig, Rodriguez, Ault, Fragoso, Donald Rodriguez and the city.

Times staff writer Terry Pristin contributed to this article.