Long Beach : Council Declines to Pay for Officer’s Legal Defense

The Long Beach City Council has turned down a request to pay for the legal defense of Long Beach police officers Mark Dickey and Mark Ramsey, who are facing criminal misdemeanor charges stemming from their arrest of anti-brutality activist Don Jackson last January.

“Of course, it’s a tremendous disappointment to the officers,” said Edward P. George Jr., a Long Beach attorney who will probably represent Dickey and Ramsey in the criminal case. George had written the council last week asking the city to provide for their legal defense, but the council decided in closed session Tuesday not to do so.

“We chose not to represent them at this time,” Councilman Tom Clark said. While the city routinely defends officers in civil cases, Clark said criminal charges raise questions of whether a city defense would be appropriate. Further, Clark noted that the Long Beach Police Department’s investigation of the matter is not yet complete. “I don’t think we have all the information” about the incident, Clark said.

Dickey, who is on a stress-related leave from the department, is charged with assaulting Jackson, who was stopped by the officers during a secretly videotaped sting intended to prove allegations of police brutality in Long Beach. Both he and Ramsey, Dickey’s partner, were charged with falsifying their report of Jackson’s arrest. A charge against Jackson of resisting arrest was dropped by the Long Beach prosecutor last month.

Ramsey remains on duty.