Trial Opens for 6 LAPD Officers in Rights Case

The police officers were looking for a weapon used in a gang murder and they had a search warrant.

At precisely 7 a.m., they crouched outside Jessie Lorez’s home in East Los Angeles and shouted their intentions to enter. Then, while some officers shattered the house’s rear windows as a diversion, five others stormed through the open front door.

They found no gun inside. But during a half-hour search, the officers allegedly broke Lorez’s nose, yanked his daughter to the floor by her hair and smashed dishes, pots, a camera, ceramic figurines and other household items.

On Wednesday, more than two years after that intrusion on June 13, 1986, a trial began in U.S District Court to determine whether the six Los Angeles police officers in the search violated the civil rights of the Lorez family, which has sued the city for unspecified damages.

Opening Statement

“The (officers) in this case came to the Lorez house to kick ass, and that’s exactly what they did,” said the family’s attorney, Stephen Yagman.

All of the officers were assigned to Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums.

Authorities say that the Lorez home near Lincoln High School was a haven for gang members and that Lorez’s son, Edward, was a gang member suspected of keeping a handgun that had been used in a killing.

One of the raiding officers, Detective Dennis Keller, 36, testified Wednesday that five days before the search, he and other officers went to the Lorez home without a warrant and were invited in by Lorez’s wife, Armida. Jessie Lorez, however, demanded that the officers “get the . . . out of my house, and he said that he would kill us if we came back,” Keller testified.

When the officers returned days later with a warrant and entered the house, Lorez, then 55, emerged from a back bedroom, ran toward Keller screaming “get the . . . out of my house” and punched him in the chest, according to the officer.

Keller was not hurt. He testified that he and another officer forced Lorez to the living room floor by grabbing his wrist and hair.

Keller denied breaking Lorez’s nose, but noted that another officer was “pushing” Lorez’s head toward the wooden floor in an effort to subdue him.

“Mr. Lorez’s nose was broken by himself,” Keller testified.

Woman Handcuffed

During the struggle with Lorez, his 21-year-old daughter, Diane, walked into the room and demanded to know “what is this all about,” Keller said. The officer said he ordered her to the floor “for officer safety.” When she allegedly refused, Keller forced her down by grabbing her hair and an arm, he said. She was handcuffed and not injured.

Keller said he saw nothing damaged or destroyed while the officers examined many small items in search of the murder weapon and ammunition.

“I don’t know what was broken when I went in; I don’t know what was broken when I left,” Keller said.

Lorez was charged with battery on a police officer and later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, according to Deputy City Atty. Jeffrey Nelson, who is defending the officers. Nelson noted outside the courtroom that the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division has exonerated all of the officers in their search.