Officer Denies Chronic Drinking Before Fatal Crash

Torrance Police Sgt. Rollo Green admitted Wednesday that he had a reputation within his department as a heavy drinker, but he testified that his drinking was not a chronic problem in the months leading up to a 1984 traffic accident that triggered a major lawsuit against him and the department.

Green portrayed himself in Los Angeles Superior Court as an occasional drinker who sometimes overindulged but who also went “days, weeks, months” without drinking alcohol.

His testimony contradicts contentions by plaintiff John Rastello of San Pedro that Green was repeatedly drunk on duty and off duty and that his fellow officers did nothing to relieve the problem.

Rastello’s lawsuit accusing the Police Department with routinely whitewashing misconduct by officers was filed 12 days after his son, Kelly, 19, was killed in an Aug. 30, 1984, traffic collision with Green.

Rastello’s lawyers have contended during the 2-week-old trial that Green was driving drunk in his pickup truck and made an illegal left turn, colliding with Kelly Rastello’s motorcycle. Rastello’s lawsuit alleges that Green’s fellow officers covered up the facts of the case, continuing a pattern in which Torrance officers concealed wrongdoing by fellow police.

Before recessing for three days, the trial Wednesday featured testimony that centered on Green’s alleged history of alcohol abuse. Judge Abby Soven told jurors to use the information only to decide how much police colleagues knew about Green’s drinking.

The 23-year police veteran hesitated before answering a question about his reputation as a heavy drinker.

Rastello’s attorney, Browne Greene, responded by reading Green’s pretrial deposition.

“I had a reputation as a heavy drinker, partyer, womanizer,” Green said in the sworn statement.

The testimony could be important because the city of Torrance could be held liable if the jury determines that Police Department employees knew Green had a dangerous drinking problem and did nothing about it.

Earlier Wednesday, a woman testified that while she was at a local bar one morning in 1979, several off-duty police officers, who appeared to be drunk, approached her and bought her a number of drinks.

She said she invited four of the officers to her apartment building for a swim, but eight showed up.

The woman tearfully recounted how one officer entered her bedroom and propositioned her. After she said “no,” the man left. But a second officer entered and pinned her to the bed, she testified. “I started trying to resist and he started hitting me. He said that I deserved this. That I asked for it.”

The woman said the officer raped her and then invited two more officers into the room. “He invited them to use me too.” But she said she was able to persuade the two men to leave her alone.