Jury Exonerates Inglewood Officer in Drug Shooting

An Inglewood policeman acted properly when he shot an unarmed suspect four years ago during a drug raid, a Torrance Superior Court jury ruled this week in a civil suit.

Monday’s 11-1 verdict, reached after less than an hour of deliberation, vindicated Officer Edmund Woods in the shooting of Francis (Francie) Dotts. The trial stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Dotts’ sister, Gloria Nelson, charging the Inglewood Police Department with negligence. The suit did not name Woods as a defendant.

Dotts, now 59, was left a brain-damaged quadriplegic by the single bullet that ripped through his brain.

Jurors said they were convinced by Woods’ testimony that he felt his life was in danger when he confronted Dotts on Aug. 3, 1983, in the bedroom of Dotts’ Eucalyptus Avenue apartment. (Only nine jurors must concur to reach a verdict in a civil case.)

Woods, now 32, was a member of a detective team that came to the apartment that day with a warrant to search for drugs.

Woods used a hand-held battering ram to knock down the locked door and then chased Dotts into the bedroom. When he arrived at the bedroom doorway, Woods testified, he saw Dotts sitting on the edge of his bed, bent over at the waist, his hands moving quickly between the mattress and box spring.

Woods testified that he yelled, “Freeze, police!” several times, fearing that Dotts was reaching for a gun. When he felt that Dotts was about to shoot, Woods said, he fired a single shot from his .357 Magnum revolver.

There was no gun in the bed.

“At no time did I feel that I was wrong,” Woods said after the verdict. “I regretted that I had to pull the trigger, but I was performing my duty, and I had the threat against me.”

Analyses of Shooting

Woods said it was difficult for him to listen to analyses of the shooting by “Monday morning quarterbacks,” including expert witnesses for Dotts who said the policeman should have waited to see a gun before firing.

Timothy Walker, the police department’s lawyer, said in an interview that defense expert Robert Smitson was more convincing. Smitson, a former Los Angeles Police Academy instructor, told jurors that Woods would have been in danger of being shot himself if he had waited longer to shoot.

“That seemed to be the turning point,” Walker said. “But the key was the honesty and integrity of Officer Woods. The jurors really believed that he was in fear of his life.”

Another crucial moment came two weeks into the three-week trial when defense attorney Robert Tobias told Judge Douglas McKee that Dotts was prepared to testify about the shooting.

Could Not Remember

The announcement was startling because Tobias had said throughout four years of trial preparation that Dotts could not remember the incident.

Dotts was brought to the courtroom on a gurney last week, but McKee refused to let him testify before the jury. The judge said Dotts appeared not to understand the proceedings.

Tobias said he will make a motion for a new trial because Dotts’ testimony and other evidence was improperly excluded from the trial.

Woods, an 11-year police veteran, said he plans to remain with the Inglewood police.

“I’m elated,” he said. “I feel like a million pounds was lifted off my back.”

Dotts will remain at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster, where the state pays for his medical care.

“I feel very sad about it,” Nelson said of the verdict. “I just don’t feel like any consideration was given to our side at all, not when the jury was out for just an hour.”

Nelson said she would go to the hospital this weekend to tell Dotts about the verdict. “I feel very bad about it,” she said, “but I still have my brother.”