Ex-Officer Pleads No Contest in Assault Case

A former Hawthorne police officer, fired in July after he struck a handcuffed suspect with a flashlight, pleaded no contest Wednesday to assault with a deadly weapon and could be sentenced to a year in county jail.

With jury selection under way, John Garza, 25, entered the plea in Los Angeles Superior Court. Judge Raymond Mireles set sentencing for Jan. 11.

Garza, a police officer for 2 1/2 years, agreed to the plea in exchange for having a second assault charge dropped, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden. That charge--assault under color of authority--stems from the same incident.

Garza’s lawyer did not return several phone calls.

The incident began at 3 a.m. June 12, when Hawthorne police received a report that gunshots had been fired in the Holly Park neighborhood, Darden said.

Two officers in a patrol car found a young man standing in the street with a .38-caliber revolver, Darden said. The man fled, throwing the pistol away before speeding off in a car with a 17-year-old Los Angeles youth.

Authorities declined to identify the two suspects but released the age of the one who was assaulted by Garza.

The officers in the patrol car eventually caught the suspects, handcuffed them and forced them to lie face down on the ground.

Garza arrived in the second of two backup cars and “literally ran over to where the victim was proned out and handcuffed, and struck him on the head with a flashlight,” Darden said. The single blow opened a 2-inch gash on the 17-year-old’s head, Hawthorne Police Capt. Steve Port said.

Other officers reported the incident to their supervisor, Port said. Police administrators said they could discover no reason for the attack.

Inaccurate Report

Garza also wrote an inaccurate police report that said the youth resisted arrest, his superiors said. “In fact, he had not resisted at all,” Darden said.

Garza was fired July 26.

The flashlight incident was the second accusation of excessive force against Garza in 1988. He was suspended in February after allegations that he mistreated a prisoner, failed to report the prisoner’s injuries and unsafely operated a police vehicle, said Doug Gates, city employee relations officer.