3 Officers Acquitted in 39th-Dalton Drug Raid : Trial: Jurors say they believe vandalism occurred, but that prosecutors failed to prove the defendants’ role.

Three Los Angeles police officers were cleared Wednesday of criminal wrongdoing in the notorious ransacking of four apartments at 39th Street and Dalton Avenue in a 1988 drug raid.

After nearly three weeks of deliberation, a Municipal Court jury returned verdicts of not guilty on five of six counts lodged against the three officers. It deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal on the sixth count, which was subsequently dismissed.

Jurors later said they believed police officers had vandalized the apartments, but that the prosecution had not proved the three accused were guilty. The prosecutor complained the case had been stymied by a Police Department “code of silence” that deterred officers from testifying truthfully against one another.

The verdict appeared to end criminal prosecution of a case that, until it was eclipsed by the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King, had been broadly condemned as a flagrant example of excess by Los Angeles police. Civil litigation in the 39th and Dalton case so far has cost Los Angeles $3.4 million in settlements.

Jurors found Capt. Thomas Elfmont, 45, not guilty of conspiracy to commit vandalism and deadlocked 9 to 3 on a separate vandalism count. The jury also acquitted Sgt. Charles (Ted) Spicer, 42, and Officer Todd B. Parrick, 28, of vandalism and conspiracy counts.

Municipal Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler dismissed the vandalism charge against Elfmont at the request of Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher A. Darden.

As the verdicts were read in the crowded courtroom, Elfmont, the central figure in the misdemeanor case, buried his face in his left hand and sobbed. He had been accused of urging his officers to render the apartments of suspected drug dealers “uninhabitable” in a roll call briefing three days before the Aug. 1, 1988, raid in South Los Angeles. Eighty officers participated in the 45-minute raid. Some smashed toilets, broke windows and painted pro-police graffiti on an outside wall.

Police said they believed the apartments were gang-controlled “crack” cocaine houses, but less than an ounce of cocaine and fewer than six ounces of marijuana were confiscated. Several dozen suspected gang members were taken into custody, but only seven were booked and none was charged with a crime, police said.

“Everybody’s convinced that vandalism occurred,” said juror Sharon Bess, of Pasadena, a supervisor for the county Department of Children’s Services. “But we cannot prove that those three people were responsible for the vandalism.”

She said the racially mixed jury--six members were black--were certain that some police officers other than the defendants were “flat-out lying” when they testified about the raid.

Jury foreman Isom Cox, a photocopier from Compton, offered a blunt assessment: “I think the wrong men were brought to trial,” he said.

Darden, the prosecutor, said the outcome might have been different if the Police Department had encouraged honest testimony.

“Had we had a little more support from the LAPD in terms of ensuring that these officers testified truthfully, I think that might have helped,” Darden said. “I think (the officers) lied about what happened, and I think they lied as to why it happened, and I think they lied about who did it.”

Darden also said his prosecution was hampered by his lack of access to depositions in civil cases and by the failure of the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division to assist his investigation.

Lt. Fred Nixon, a Police Department spokesman, said the department determined that 38 officers committed acts of misconduct in the 39th and Dalton raid. Of those, he said, 25 were suspended without pay; one resigned; and another, probationary Officer Jeff Mundt, was fired.

Defendants had worried that the intense criticism of police arising from the King beating would affect the jury’s impartiality, but jurors said they abided by the court’s order to refrain from discussing King or watch news reports about it.

“Anything that came up about Rodney King, we had to head the other way,” Bess said.

Expressing relief that his fears of an anti-Police Department sentiment had not been realized, Elfmont said: “Apparently the jury believes in the system. And the system says you have to prove somebody’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You can’t just take a freight train and put people on it and send them to jail.”

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said he was “pleased with the outcome” of the case.

During seven weeks of testimony, prosecutors tried to show that Elfmont and Spicer directed their officers to devastate the apartments, and that Parrick played a prominent role in carrying out the instructions by taking an ax to apartment walls and cabinets.

Destruction was widespread. Televisions and VCRs were broken. A glass table top was smashed and doors were removed from a refrigerator and dryer. Bedposts and mirrors were shattered. A vacuum cleaner was found outside, apparently thrown out a window, and residents complained that clothing was destroyed by bleach. A slogan, “Gang Task Force Rules,” was scrawled on a wall outside one of the units.

Sixteen police officers testified during the trial under orders from Gates. In some cases, the witnesses seemed less than compliant.

Defense attorneys acknowledged that police may have committed vandalism at 39th and Dalton, but they denied that the three defendants were among the perpetrators. Some of the vandalism apparently was committed by other officers who were not charged in the case, and some of it may have been caused by angry residents of the apartments after the raid, defense attorneys argued.

Testimony showed that Elfmont--a Los Angeles police officer since 1973 and commanding officer of the Southwest Division at the time of the raid--had spoken to about eight officers a few days before the raid in what defense attorneys described as a “locker room” pep talk to prepare them for the raid.

According to testimony, police were concerned that the Rolling 30s, a gang associated with the Crips, were selling cocaine and terrorizing a family that lived in a home between the two apartment buildings. Gang members were believed to be heavily armed and had threatened to firebomb the family for putting up security lights, officers said.

Those who attended the roll call testified that Elfmont wanted the locations “hit hard,” using words such as “leveled” and “uninhabitable” to describe how the apartments should be rendered. Officer Diane Tostado told jurors that the “aggressive” tone of his address concerned her.

She also told the jury that Elfmont promised the officers “100% backing,” even if a Crips gang member was shot.

However, under cross-examination, Tostado conceded that she did not take Elfmont’s remarks as an instruction to commit vandalism or to break the law in searching for drugs. She also denied--as other officers did--that Elfmont organized a conspiracy to ravage the apartments.

No officer was able to give more than a fragmented account of Elfmont’s pep talk.

“The majority of the jury felt that they were tough, hard words, and it was stupid to have said them,” said Bess, the juror. “But each and every officer said in no way did that enable them to commit the crime, or give them permission; therefore aiding and abetting did not occur.”

Spicer was accused of making similar remarks to officers on the night of the raid and allowing officers to vandalize the apartments while he commanded the search at the scene.

Michael Stone, Spicer’s attorney, had introduced photographic evidence to argue that a portion of the destruction was caused by apartment residents incensed by the raid and determined to make the Police Department look bad.

“Some of these photographs are outrageous,” Stone said. “You just can’t imagine why a police officer would do such a thing. I can’t either.”

Parrick was accused of maliciously wielding an ax to tear apart walls and kitchen cabinets. Much of the testimony against Parrick was provided by Officer Charles A. Wilson, who was charged in the case before pleading no contest and agreeing to testify. Wilson, who remains on duty, was sentenced in late March to two years’ probation, fined $1,700 and ordered to work 150 hours of community service.

Bess said the panel did not believe that Wilson’s testimony was adequately corroborated, as required by law.

Spicer, an 18-year-veteran of the department now assigned to Newton Division, is now attending an administrative Board of Rights hearing. Parrick faces a similar hearing, scheduled for July 8.

Elfmont has been reassigned to traffic duty in the San Fernando Valley.

Also still to be resolved is a civil lawsuit scheduled for trial Sept. 24 in U. S. District Court. Stephen Yagman, an attorney representing some of the apartment owners, is suing 77 police officers, including Elfmont, Spicer and Parrick, along with Gates, Mayor Tom Bradley and City Council members.

“We will go to trial with 104 defendants,” he said. “We are suing the people who are directly responsible for the damage or who were part of the mission that went out to cause the damage, or who are responsible for the custom of property destruction that prevails in the LAPD.”

Times staff writers Paul Lieberman, Richard Serrano and Lois Timnick contributed to this story.