Altercation Results in Complaint of Favoritism

A Lockheed Corp. financial officer has complained to Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates that he was assaulted by the vice president of the police pension commission, who he says struck him in the head and knocked him off his feet during an altercation after a traffic accident in Chinatown.

But police investigators, who twice reviewed the case, have determined the incident was a “mutual combat,” despite the fact that Commissioner Leland Wong and Ronald H. Moseley agree that Moseley never struck Wong during the March 2 incident.

Moseley, in a letter to Gates demanding to know why criminal battery charges were not pursued against Wong, complained that Wong received favored treatment because of his position as a member of the police Board of Pension Commissioners, which awards pensions to Los Angeles police and firefighters.

At one point during the altercation, Moseley told Gates, Wong “produced his wallet and flashed (a Los Angeles Police Department) badge, and shouted, ‘I’m a police commissioner and you have to do what I say!’ ”

Wong, in an interview Friday, said he struck the man only in self-defense, after Moseley repeatedly yelled obscenities at him. He also accused Moseley of filing the complaint against Wong “in order to take advantage of the sensitivity surrounding the LAPD and all of the publicity over Rodney King.”

He also strongly denied that he received any favoritism from the police. “I was not given any special treatment by the LAPD,” he said. “They did their job and they checked out all the facts. The guy was advancing on me.”

A member of the police pension board since 1989 and a former City Council candidate, the 34-year-old Wong was appointed two weeks ago by Mayor Tom Bradley to serve on the city’s Board of Airport Commissioners. Wong is a Chinatown community leader and has been active in anti-gang programs.

The mayor, in a public statement on May 22, heralded Wong as a civic leader with “a wealth of political, development and community experience.” The Airport Commission appointment is still subject to council confirmation.

Vallee Bunting, a spokesman for the mayor, said Bradley was not aware of the incident until The Times inquired about it Friday.

“The mayor is supportive of Mr. Wong’s nomination to the Airport Commission,” she said. “The fact that the police investigated this incident twice and have not pressed charges should put this matter to rest. If there is further litigation in this incident, the mayor puts his faith in the courts to decide liability in this matter.”

The incident occurred about 1 p.m. on March 2, when Moseley’s 1988 Nissan ZX struck the rear of Wong’s 1990 Ford Taurus in the 1000 block of North Broadway in Chinatown.

They both agree that when they got out of their cars, Moseley became angry and shouted obscenities at Wong. Moseley said he was particularly incensed that Wong insisted he present his driver’s license, even before the police arrived to investigate the accident.

Moseley, a 57-year-old La Canada Flintridge resident, described the accident as “very minor,” with the damage nothing more than a bent fender on Wong’s car. However, Wong said that he and his 66-year-old mother suffered back and neck injuries from the collision.

According to Moseley, he and Wong continued to argue on the street. “He then produced his wallet and put it down on the hood of the car and flipped it open and there’s a shiny badge,” Moseley said. “He said, ‘I’m a police commissioner and you’ve got to do what I say.’

“I told him what he could do with his badge. Then he’s standing in the street and a crowd is around. He says, ‘You want to fight? Hit me.’ I didn’t hit him. I gave him the finger. And he hit me in the left ear. It knocked me down.”

But Wong said Moseley was lunging toward him, and that he struck him to avoid being hurt. “He was big and he was pointing in my face and he was coming at me,” Wong said. “And I reacted.”

In an interview Thursday, Wong twice admitted pulling out his LAPD pension commission badge and showing it to Moseley.

“The guy was becoming belligerent,” the commissioner said. “He was swearing at me. So I just felt he might respond by that. But it was not done in any intention to do anything. Really, I don’t know why I did it.”

But on Friday, Wong said he had checked some notes he made of the incident and then changed his version of the events to state that he only showed the badge to police investigating the accident.

Wong also provided a transcript of a conversation his insurance adjusters took from Donna Goss, a traffic enforcement officer who said she witnessed the incident. In it, Goss recalled that Wong “identified himself as a commissioner” but she did not mention whether he displayed a police badge.

Goss could not be contacted for an interview Friday.

Moseley filed a complaint, but police records show that the “battery report was canceled” and that “all we have is a traffic accident report.”

Angry that his complaint was not substantiated, Moseley sent his letter to Gates on May 13.

“He has been issued an LAPD badge and you should be gravely concerned about this,” Moseley advised Gates. “He has the attitude of a macho gunslinger.”

“Also,” the letter added. “Mr. Wong’s position in the LAPD could lead to suspicion of favoritism in the handling of the case.”

Moseley said he has not received a response from Gates.

Lt. Fred Nixon, a Police Department spokesman, said the decision not to arrest Wong had “nothing, nothing at all” to do with his position on the pension board.

Asked if it was appropriate for a commissioner to use his badge for personal reasons, Nixon said: “There’s no crime in that. It’s of no interest to us. It would be like a guy from Universal Pictures trying to use his position in that same kind of situation.”