Witnesses to Tell of Alleged Cover-Ups by Police Officers

Witnesses will be allowed to testify about a series of incidents in which the Torrance Police Department allegedly covered up complaints by citizens of drunkenness, sexual assault and other abuses by police officers, a judge ruled this week at the start of a massive civil trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Judge Abby Soven’s rulings mean that the case of Rastello vs. the city of Torrance will become an exhaustive review of the Torrance Police Department and not simply an examination of the fatal 1984 traffic collision that was the impetus for the case.

The judge’s action was applauded by John Rastello of San Pedro, who filed suit in 1984 after his son, Kelly, 19, was killed in a traffic collision with Torrance Police Sgt. Rollo Green, who was off-duty at the time. The suit charges that Green caused the accident because he was drunk and made an illegal left turn, and that other Torrance police officers covered up for him. The suit alleges that such cover-ups are common in the Torrance Police Department.

Lawyers representing Green and the city will begin their opening arguments in the case this morning. They have denied all the allegations and said that it was Rastello’s excessive speed along Rolling Hills Road in Torrance that caused the accident.

By the time jury selection began Tuesday, Soven had already established the outline for the case with nearly 40 rulings on a series of legal questions. The judge blitzed through the motions in less than five hours, scolding lawyers when she felt their arguments took too long.

The judge rejected requests by lawyers for Green and the city to limit the scope of the trial to the events immediately surrounding the night of the accident, Aug. 30, 1984.

‘About a Cover-Up’

“This case is not about a failure to arrest” Sgt. Green, Soven told defense lawyers. “It is about a cover-up.” When the lawyers persisted in their arguments, Soven snapped: “I still believe the defense doesn’t know what this case is about.”

Soven said she will permit testimony about previous incidents in which the Torrance Police Department allegedly covered up alcohol abuse and crimes committed by police officers. She said the allegations are important in the case, not on their own merits, but in order to give Rastello’s lawyers an opportunity to prove their theory that Torrance officers routinely fail to investigate their peers or file accurate reports on them.

But Soven said she would limit the testimony. “We’re not going to try this case all year,” she said.

Brian Panish, one of Rastello’s lawyers, had said he wanted to use 50 incidents to prove that the Torrance Police Department has a “pattern and practice” of failing to investigate its officers, but the judge said she would permit testimony on just 25 incidents. And the plaintiffs can discuss another 15 incidents in which the department allegedly did not file accurate reports of citizen complaints against its officers, Soven ruled.

A Case in Three Parts

Lawyers for Green and the city had also argued that the case should be divided into three parts: one trial to decide who was at fault in the accident, the second to assess whether Torrance officers covered up for Green and the third to determine whether cover-ups are routine in the Torrance Police Department.

The lawyers said that testimony on any one of those issues would unfairly cloud the jury’s judgment on the others.

For example, the judge said that in order to assess the city’s liability she would permit testimony about how much other officers knew about Green’s alleged alcoholism and what the department did to treat it. But Soven said the jury would be instructed not to let such testimony influence its decision about whether Green was drunk on the night of the accident.

Green’s lawyers argued that this was too much to expect of jurors and that the issues should be tried separately.

A Single Trial

But Soven rejected such arguments, ruling that the jury will hear all the issues during a single trial.

“It is going to be devastating to us,” Will J. Pirkey, Green’s attorney, said of the ruling. “We think it’s extremely prejudicial. We are very concerned.” Casey Yim, one of the attorneys representing the city, agreed that the ruling was a setback but said he was pleased that the judge had limited the testimony that would be permitted alleging cover-ups.

The plaintiffs and defense have been involved in an intense legal struggle for more than a year over what documents the Police Department should produce for the case.

The city’s lawyers fought during pretrial hearings against releasing much of the material requested by Rastello. Two judges had to be specially appointed to hear the legal arguments and one, retired Superior Court Judge John K. Trotter, twice sanctioned the city--with penalties totaling $15,000--for failing to produce documents.

In the end, Torrance officials said they turned over more than 500,000 pages, mostly on Police Department practices and past instances of misconduct.