Officer Who Defends Colleagues Wins His Own Case

In a case weighing heavily on how the Los Angeles Police Department disciplines its officers, a longtime police defense representative was found not guilty Thursday of improperly assisting a fellow officer charged with criminal theft and insurance fraud.

Sgt. Beno Hernandez, considered the dean of Los Angeles police officers who represent fellow officers in discipline cases, was cleared of accusations that he attended the trial last year of Officer Ralph Gerard for the sole purpose of helping Gerard’s defense attorney beat the felony charges.

The board, consisting of a deputy chief and two captains, ruled that the Police Department failed to prove that Hernandez shirked his police duties by aiding a criminal defendant. “The preponderance of evidence,” said Deputy Chief William Rathburn, “supports a finding of not guilty.”

However, the panel found him guilty of two minor infractions for failing to properly notify his superiors that he had been subpoenaed to the trial, for which the 26-year police veteran was given a two-day suspension.

Nevertheless, Hernandez and his attorneys hailed the not-guilty verdict as vindication of their allegations that management is harassing police defense representatives.

“Other defense reps will be criticized in the years to come,” Hernandez said. “But if they stand on their convictions, the system will change for everyone’s benefit.”

His defense attorneys, Darryl Mounger and Enrique Hernandez (no relation), said the Police Department was trying to intimidate all defense representatives.

“This was an attack by the department’s Internal Affairs Division to grab ahold of and squash defense reps,” Mounger said.

He had planned to show that many officers, including Chief Daryl F. Gates, help fellow officers charged with crimes, despite a department policy that prohibits such activity. But their defense case was cut short when the board said it had heard enough testimony, and then announced the verdicts.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t get the chance to blast them” with evidence that other police officers help officers in criminal trials, said attorney Hernandez. He challenged the department not to bring similar cases against other defense representatives, saying: “If you come after a defense rep, you had better have a good case.”

However, Detective Larry Shelley, who brought the case against Beno Hernandez, denied that the department was harassing defense representatives. “A complaint came to this department,” Shelley said. “We had an obligation to look into that complaint and present it to the board. And that’s all we did.”

Shelley presented witnesses who said the sergeant took notes during the Gerard trial and conferred with Gerard’s attorney, Bradley Brunon.

But Brunon testified that Hernandez was there only as a subpoenaed defense witness. “He was subpoenaed and directed to bring his notes and reports, and that’s what he did,” Brunon said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Theodore Mossbarger, the bailiff in the Gerard trial, testified that Hernandez never tried to influence the outcome of the trial. “He was sitting in the back of the courtroom like any other spectator,” Mossbarger said.

In issuing the board’s verdict, Rathburn said:

“The evidence failed to show Sgt. Hernandez assisted the defense. The evidence showed Sgt. Hernandez did not sit at the defense table, did not pass notes to the defense counsel and did not meet often with the defense counsel during breaks in the trial.”