LAPD Offers No Comment on Discipline of Officers
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman declined to comment Thursday on whether the agency will discipline two officers who have exercised their 5th Amendment right not to testify in the Dalton Avenue police vandalism case. “We’re looking into it,” was all Cmdr. Robert S. Gil would say. Department policy says officers must testify, even at the risk of self-incrimination.
Detective Robert L. Clark, 48, invoked the 5th Amendment last month. On Wednesday, Officer Jeffrey A. Sandefur, 28, did as well.
Los Angeles Municipal Judge Larry Fidler noted that a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision granted such a right to police officers. “The police chief and the court have put these officers between a rock and a hard place,” said attorney Diane Marchant, who represents Sandefur on behalf of the Police Protective League.
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