Witness Says Torrance Officer Appeared Drunk After Collision

An off-duty Torrance police sergeant appeared obviously drunk about 15 minutes after his pickup truck and a motorcycle collided, killing its rider, a witness testified Thursday in a civil trial against the Torrance Police Department.

Other witnesses in the first day of testimony said Sgt. Rollo Green was not at the scene immediately after the accident, on Aug. 30, 1984, which killed Kelly Rastello, 19. Lawyers for John Rastello, Kelly’s father, contend that Green may have left the scene.

The accusations against Green are part of a Los Angeles Superior Court suit that seeks unspecified monetary damages from Torrance and alleges that Torrance officers covered up for their colleague.

Lawyers for the Rastello family have said they will show that Green was responsible for the accident and that the cover-up was part of a pattern in which Torrance officers habitually concealed wrongdoing by fellow police.

The trial is expected to provide an exhaustive review of alleged acts of misconduct over several years by the county’s third-largest police department; before the trial, the city was forced to turn over 500,000 pages of documents, most of them police files.

Charges Denied

Lawyers for Green and the city dispute the allegations. They have told the jury that Green was not drunk and that Rastello was speeding when he crashed into Green’s pickup truck while it was making a left turn. The city’s lawyers also say allegations of police misconduct are thoroughly reviewed.

Key testimony came Thursday from a San Pedro man who happened on the scene of the accident, at the intersection of Rolling Hills Road and Whiffletree Lane. He said he talked to Green 15 minutes after the accident, which occurred just before midnight.

“He seemed very uneasy on his feet,” said Tony Andrie. “I would use the word queasy. He was swaying back and forth.”

Andrie, who said he had worked as a bartender, testified: “If he was a customer at my bar, I would not have served him another drink. . . . That’s the level of sobriety he was at.”

Green’s lawyers attacked Andrie’s credibility, repeatedly asking him why he had not come forward until more than four years after the accident.

“I did not want to cause any more grief for the family,” Andrie said, adding he did not know how important his observations were until his mother had a chance meeting this year with Rastello’s grandmother, who mentioned the upcoming trial.

Conflicting Reports

Andrie also testified that he helped to mop up gasoline from Rastello’s motorcycle and that he spoke to two women who were at the intersection of Rolling Hills Road and Whiffletree Lane.

During cross-examination later Thursday, the two women said they did not remember a man speaking to them or mopping up gasoline.

The women, returning home from a night of dinner and dancing, said they were the first to arrive at the crash scene. Rosalie White testified that she tried to comfort Rastello. “I told him that he shouldn’t be afraid,” she recalled. “That help was coming and that he shouldn’t worry.” Then she began to pray, she testified.

The woman corroborated Andrie’s testimony that Green, who lived a block from the intersection, was not at the crash scene for at least 15 minutes after the accident. They said that when Green did appear, at the back of a group of onlookers, he did not come forward.

Green’s lawyer, Will J. Pirkey, suggested in questioning that the women might simply have overlooked Green because they were busy tending to the youth, who later died at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Green was in shock and bleeding from a cut on his face after the accident, Pirkey said during the questioning.

Torrance police officers have said they observed Green’s behavior, performed an eye-gaze test and decided that he was not under the influence and should not be arrested. The Police Department never sampled Green’s breath, blood or urine to determine the sergeant’s blood-alcohol level. Green admitted in the accident report that he had been drinking but said he was not drunk.

Testimony is expected to center on the accident for the first portion of the trial. Later witnesses are expected to review more than two dozen citizens complaints against police that drunkenness, sexual assault and other abuses allegedly were covered up, said Rastello’s lawyers.

Judge Abby Soven estimated the case will go to the jury in about five weeks.

The trial is being widely watched for the unprecedented view it is expected to offer of the Police Department in Torrance.

The 500,000 pages of documents describe Torrance Police Department procedures and previous instances of misconduct. The plaintiffs have promised to use them in questioning top city and police officials.

The list of potential witnesses includes Police Chief Donald Nash, Mayor Katy Geissert, City Manager LeRoy Jackson and several current and former members of the City Council.

A civil trial involving allegations of Torrance police misconduct has not reached a jury in at least a decade, said Brian Panish, who is representing Rastello along with attorney Browne Greene.