Local News in Brief : Ex-Police Officer Sentenced
A former Hawthorne policeman, who pleaded no contest last month to a charge of assault for hitting a 17-year-old suspect with a flashlight, has been fined $1,000, placed on probation and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Raymond Mireles imposed the sentence Monday on John Garza, 25, a patrolman who was fired by the Hawthorne Police Department about a month after the assault on June 12.
Garza entered his plea Dec. 14 to the felony charge in exchange for the district attorney’s office dropping a second assault charge stemming from the same incident, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden.
Garza faced up to one year in County Jail, but Mireles chose the other penalties and suspended a 90-day jail sentence.
The incident that led to the assault began early in the morning, when police arrested two teen-agers for allegedly firing a pistol in the Holly Park section of Hawthorne. The 17-year-old had already been captured by other officers and was lying handcuffed on the ground when Garza arrived and hit the youth on the head for no reason, Darden said.
Garza’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
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