‘Robber’s Rights’ Case Goes to Jury : Trial: Woman says police surveillance squad violated her civil rights in shooting. Officers say they were just doing their job.

Lawyers for a convicted bank robber and six Los Angeles police detectives squared off in federal court Thursday, with one side maintaining the officers “were trying to do in” robber Jane Berry and the other responding that the police acted in self-defense when they shot Berry in 1982.

The lawyers’ final arguments to the jury brought to a close an unusual trial in which the detectives--all current or former members of the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section--are accused of violating Berry’s civil rights when they wounded her and killed her companion after watching the pair rob a Security Pacific Bank branch in Burbank.

“They wanted to put them out of business forever,” lawyer Stephen Yagman, who represents Berry, told the jury. “But the police aren’t allowed to do that in the United States of America. We don’t give so much discretion to the police so they can act as judge, jury and executioner.”

Responded Assistant City Atty. Victoria Chaney, who represents the officers: “That’s a bizarre story. It seems to me that if you’re going to execute somebody, you’re not going to do it with the word “police” written on your jacket and badges on your lapel.”

The $10-million civil case marks the first time that members of the SIS, an elite undercover surveillance squad that gathers evidence by watching dangerous criminals commit crimes and attempting to arrest them afterward, have been brought to trial as a group.

Throughout the trial, the six SIS detectives--Michael Sirk, Rodger Niles, Henry Cadena, Jerry Brooks, Dale Ostrom and Roger Marine--have sat together on the left side of the courtroom, often joined by fellow police officers in plain clothes. On Thursday, the courtroom was packed with officers, as well as the families of the defendants.

While the officers maintain they acted reasonably, Berry’s lawyers are trying to prove that the police used excessive force during the shooting. They point to evidence that Berry and her companion, John Crumpton, were shot only from behind, and also maintain that police could have prevented the incident by arresting the pair on lesser charges before the robbery.