Independent Counsel in Police Abuse : As Recent Incidents Show, Prosecutors Are Not Doing the Job

In May, 1988, 20-year-old Tom Tice was choked into unconsciousness by Torrance police officer James Lynch as Lynch’s partner, Ross Bartlett, beat the helpless Tice with his night stick across his back and thighs eight times. Bartlett then stood on Tice’s feet and ankles and handcuffed the unconscious man while Lynch continued to maintain his chokehold. Finally, Lynch released his hold, allowing Tice to fall to the ground, still unconscious.

All of the foregoing was recorded on a videotape that was made available to the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Nearly 11 months later, the district attorney announced that he would not prosecute either officer, claiming insufficiency of the evidence. That decision is typical of the double standard applied by prosecutors to victims of police abuse.

A similar case occurred in Victorville last June where, despite a video depicting the use of excessive force against five Mexican nationals, the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office refused to prosecute. The same office refused to prosecute a Montclair police officer for raping a young woman, alleging insufficient evidence. The woman asserted that she was raped while handcuffed; and the officer, who admitted handcuffing and copulating her, claimed that she consented.

On the other hand, the Los Angeles County district attorney recently announced at a press conference the felony prosecution of four members of a Cerritos family accused of assault with a deadly weapon against an officer.

A videotape of that incident, given to the sheriff’s department, clearly shows deputies clubbing persons lying helpless on the ground as other deputies watched. Yet no deputy has been charged with a crime.

The unnecessary beating of a person by a police officer is a felony. Yet it is standard practice to charge the victims of police beatings with battery on an officer (a conviction could lead to a state prison term) or resisting or obstructing an arrest. Such prosecutions are often based on fabricated police reports (a misdemeanor), which are used, with prosecutorial connivance or insensibility, to cover up the real crime and to force the victim into a plea bargain in which he gives up his right to sue the officer for damages.

The double standard is illustrated again by the case of Don Jackson, a Hawthorne police sergeant. The Los Angeles County district attorney announced he would file misdemeanor charges--as he should--against two Long Beach police officers after Officer Mark Dickey shoved Jackson’s head through a plate-glass window and then slammed him against the hood of his police car. It is evident that the prosecution was initiated only as a result of political pressure, spawned by a legislative committee hearing in which the officer conceded his police report was inaccurate.

Even so, the Long Beach city prosecutor had charged Jackson with the crime of obstructing Dickey in the performance of his duty, although a videotape of the entire incident showed Jackson committed no crime whatsoever. The city prosecutor was compelled on the day of trial to drop the charges, which clearly were vindictive and retaliatory and had been initiated to protect the city from lawsuit.

Even on those rare occasions when the district attorney’s office initiates criminal charges against an officer or deputy for excessive force, the prosecution is often handled ineptly or indifferently. A recent example arises out of the prosecution of two Pasadena officers for using excessive force on several persons. Instead of prosecuting the officers for beating both men, the district attorney chose to prosecute only for the beating of the one victim who had been drinking. During the trial, the district attorney then dropped the case after the victim admitted he had been drinking.

A double standard in prosecution of police crime is unjust and dangerous. It encourages police lawlessness and brutality. It invites cynicism and disrespect for law and police.

The district attorney cannot prosecute police crimes; he would have a conflict of interest arising from his dependence on police to investigate and present evidence in court.

You never, but never, hear a major candidate for district attorney include in his platform his intent to prosecute police for excessive force, although that crime--and it is a crime--has simply gotten out of hand in this community.

An independent counsel is needed, someone who is beholden only to the people--with the power and duty to prosecute police misconduct with the same zeal and integrity of judgment that district attorneys and city prosecutors bring to the prosecution of all other serious crime.

It is vital to the integrity of our political system that it not only do justice, but also be perceived as doing justice.