Penn Faces 6 Months in Jail for Probation Violation

A judge Friday found Sagon Penn in violation of his probation as the result of his arrest last month for a disturbance at his girlfriend’s apartment.

Penn, 28, could receive up to six months in County Jail when San Diego Municipal Judge Charles Patrick sentences him May 24. Patrick allowed Penn to remain free on $2,500 bond posted previously.

Penn was acquitted in two jury trials in 1986 and 1987 of murder, manslaughter, attempted murder and assault in the March 31, 1985, shootings of two San Diego police officers and a civilian ride-along.

One officer, Thomas Riggs, was killed, and the other, Donovan Jacobs, was severely wounded. Penn, who is black, claimed that Jacobs, who is white, taunted him with racial slurs and that he fired in self-defense.

Following testimony in an all-day hearing Friday, Patrick found that Penn violated terms of the probation he received following a misdemeanor vandalism conviction last year. That conviction stemmed from an incident involving another girlfriend in North Park in which a male friend visiting her had his motorcycle damaged by Penn.

In the incident last month, Penn was arrested for resisting arrest March 11 and delaying and obstructing police officers in the performance of their duties.

“We simply cannot have two separate rules, one for Mr. Penn and one for everyone else,” the judge said.

He said the testimony of Penn’s girlfriend, Annilie Carmichael, who called police, lacked credibility.

Carmichael testified that Penn interrupted her studying by making amorous advances and twisted her arm. “He threw me on the bed and started loving me and licking me and kissing me. I slapped his face a couple of times. He thought it was funny,” Carmichael said.

“I just wanted him to leave the house for a little bit,” she said.

She said she called the 911 emergency number, telling authorities that Penn was threatening her and her children.

A tape of the call was played in court. In it, the woman pleads in a near-hysterical voice for a dispatcher to send police because of a problem with her boyfriend.

However, Carmichael said on the witness stand that she was lying to the dispatcher and that there was no threat from Penn, and thus no emergency.

“I had no intention of having him arrested,” she told the court, adding that she told police four times she wanted no charges brought against him.

Carmichael also denied that Penn lived with her, but an officer at the scene testified that she told him Penn had lived there since November. Prosecutors argued that Penn did not tell the Probation Department his new address.

Making a false report of an emergency or a crime to police is a misdemeanor, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Dave Lattuca said afterward that Carmichael’s statement under oath was “a risky thing to say in court.”

The judge described Carmichael as someone who “manipulated” the police and Penn, adding, “You can’t put a whole lot of credibility in what Miss Carmichael says what occurred.”

San Diego police Sgt. Leon Foucault testified that Penn maintained a “martial arts posture” in the apartment after police arrived and would not submit to arrest.

Foucault said he drew his revolver after Penn refused to surrender, and that Penn said: “A gun. Oh, you’re going to shoot me.”

One officer fired a Taser stun gun and Penn collapsed, but it still required four officers to handcuff his wrists and put leg restraints on him, Foucault said.