Lawyer Says Dying Man’s Arrest Was Mistake by Police

When San Diego police removed a dying man from a hospital emergency room Jan. 3 and took him to jail, the arresting officers confused him with another man with a similar name who was sought in a series of felony warrants for drug offenses, according to a lawyer who is suing the police.

James G. Randall, the attorney representing the dead man’s mother, said Monday that the felony arrest warrants San Diego police served on James O. Leggett in the hospital emergency room actually were meant for the man’s younger cousin, who has a different middle name.

“They served warrants on the wrong guy,” said Randall, who contends that James Otis Leggett might have survived had he not been removed from the hospital.

“He and his cousin have different birth dates and different ages. But all the police saw was a James Leggett and figured that was all they needed, so it’s off to jail.”

The victim’s mother, Jannie Hicks, said it was one thing for her son to have been taken from the hospital in the first place, with a swollen head and oral bleeding. She said it is worse that he apparently was not the man wanted by police.

“I’m angry and hurt,” she said. “And, at the time of his death, I didn’t even know they were taking the wrong man.”

Capt. Dick Toneck, a police spokesman, declined to discuss the matter. “I can’t comment,” he said. “If it’s under litigation, I can’t discuss it.”

According to officials, James O. Leggett was shot once in the mouth Dec. 1 while standing on a Logan Heights street. His alleged assailant, James Martin, has been arrested and jailed as he awaits trial in the shooting.

In a jailhouse interview with a United Press International reporter, Martin portrayed himself as an anti-crime activist in his neighborhood who had had several confrontations with Leggett, whom Randall acknowledged had a criminal history that included drug convictions.

Several neighborhood residents and police officials familiar with the Southeast San Diego area said they were unaware of Martin’s purported anti-crime and anti-drug activities.

Randall, a Long Beach attorney, said that when Leggett was shot, he was taken to the UC San Diego Medical Center, where he stayed for about three days for treatment of the gunshot wound. Because the bullet lodged in the back of Leggett’s neck, doctors were unable to remove it, and he was sent home, Randall said.

The lawyer said he understands that police interviewed Leggett about the shooting while he was at the hospital, but did not attempt to serve any arrest warrants for drug charges at that time.

“Why the hell did they wait until the second incident, if in fact he’s a big druggie?” Randall said. “Guys don’t normally get gunshot wounds to their mouths without the cops knowing about it. My understanding is that he was interviewed at UCSD, but the $60-million question is, why didn’t they arrest him then on these drug warrants?”

Leggett began bleeding from the mouth Jan. 3 and was taken to Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, Randall said. Leggett became belligerent when emergency room officials, believing he was under the influence of drugs, alerted police rather than treat him, the attorney said.

A coroner’s report says Leggett died of meningitis stemming from the shooting, not drug abuse.

Dr. John Eisele, deputy medical examiner for San Diego County, said Monday that an autopsy revealed a “trace of cocaine” in Leggett’s system, indicating some previous use. But the doctor found no fresh needle tracks, one indication that Leggett was not heavily under the influence of drugs when he arrived at the hospital.

He added that it would be difficult to determine whether Leggett could have survived the meningitis had he not been arrested and taken to jail.

“If it had been diagnosed and treated, he certainly would have had a better chance to survive. But I don’t think I could put percentages on that,” Eisele said.

Randall said Leggett was already dying in the emergency room.

“His brain was swelling up. He had meningitis, and he was dying. He was bleeding from the mouth because of what was going on in his head.”

When police arrived, they also suspected Leggett of being in some kind of a drug craze, mainly because he was incoherent, the lawyer said.

“Then they run these warrants and, lo and behold, they have all these warrants for him,” Randall said.

But he contends that the two felony warrants were for Leggett’s cousin.

Randall said there was a third warrant that did name James O. Leggett, but that that was for a misdemeanor offense relating to his failure to appear in court on another case. And police procedures do not call for the jailing of misdemeanor defendants, because of crowding in the county jails.

“They rushed to judgment in this case,” Randall said. “They saw his pupils, and his eyes were dilated, and they said, ‘Here’s a druggie. We’ve got some warrants. Let’s haul him away.’ ”

Hicks said that, except for the name similarities, her son and his cousin are not alike. She said her son was 39, short and brown-skinned. The cousin is in his late 20s, tall and fair-skinned.

“We’re still trying to figure out what all happened,” she said. “We’re still in the dark.”

After James O. Leggett was taken to jail, his condition worsened. He was returned to the hospital, where he died a few hours later.

Randall has filed legal claims against the city of San Diego, the county Sheriff’s Department and Physicians & Surgeons Hospital.

He previously represented the widow of Tommie C. Dubose, who was slain by a police officer during a drug raid in his home in March, 1988. Randall said that Mary Dubose and Jannie Hicks attend the same church in San Diego, and that Mary Dubose suggested she hire Randall to represent her.

The lawyer acknowledged that James O. Leggett was “not a choirboy,” and that he had drug convictions. But he said the man was trying to change his life when he was shot in December.

“He wasn’t violent at the hospital,” Randall said. “He didn’t hit anybody or hit a doctor. But it’s incompetent for the Police Department to misread the warrants.”