Long Beach Police Sting Case Put in Jury’s Hands

After nearly four days of closing arguments in the Don Jackson case, jury deliberations began Monday in the misdemeanor trial of two former Long Beach police officers.

The prosecution asked jurors to “look at the facts” and not be swayed by defense attorneys, who told jurors that a guilty verdict would send a message to law enforcement officials that “they can’t go out there and do the job they’re trained to do . . . “

Defense attorneys painted the former officers as “two fine young men” who were set up by Jackson, a former Hawthorne police sergeant out to conduct a sting on Long Beach police the night of Jan. 14, 1989.

During a confrontation, then Officer Mark Dickey appeared to push Jackson through a plate-glass window while an NBC-TV crew secretly videotaped it. Dickey is charged with assault, and both he and his former partner, Mark Ramsey, are charged with falsifying a police report.