2 Officers Overreacted, Lawyer Says : Police: A 10-year LAPD civilian employee was following her normal procedure when she was struck with a baton in a scuffle with patrolmen at Parker Center, her attorney contends.

The civilian employee of the Los Angeles Police Department who was struck with a baton by a police officer in a parking lot at Parker Center was only following normal practice as she arrived for work and was confronted, the woman’s attorney said Sunday.

“She was in her parking lot, parking where she normally parks, en route to her work assignment,” attorney Darryl Mounger said of Jennifer Jones, 41, a Jail Division supervisor who has worked for the Police Department for 10 years.

But last Friday night, two white officers challenged her presence in a parking lot restricted to department employees, and an altercation ensued. Jones, who is black, ended up in handcuffs and was taken into custody. She was treated for bruises at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in West Los Angeles after one of the officers struck her with a baton.

Police said there was no indication that race was an issue in the incident.

Mounger said Jones committed no crime, and had done nothing more than show “contempt of cop.”

A police spokesman refused to confirm or deny that the officers involved were John Daly and John Puis, as reported by United Press International, which cited a department source. Officer Mike Schwehr said no further information on the officers or the status of the police investigation into the matter would be available until today.

Mounger said he understood Jones of Los Angeles was under “both a criminal and administrative investigation” by the Police Department. An administrative investigation looks into allegations of employee misconduct, but Mounger said he had not been told what charges are involved in the criminal investigation.

“I don’t think there’s really a crime for contempt of cop,” Mounger said. He declined to relate Jones’ version of the confrontation.

Daly was reported as the officer who struck Jones, after Puis, a 17-year veteran, grabbed her by the arm, and Jones responded by hitting Puis on the forehead with a department-issued “pain-compliance” weapon.

Daly, who has served about eight years with the department, was involved in an officer-involved shooting in 1987, records show. While assigned to the 77th Street Division, Daly fatally shot a 26-year-old Nigerian who police said challenged officers responding to a disturbance call.

Mounger is also the lawyer for Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, indicted by a county grand jury on charges of assault, excessive force and filing a false police report, in the March 3 beating of motorist Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police officers.

Mounger called “ridiculous” police reports that the Friday night incident was set off by Jones’ not wearing identification.

“She verbally identified herself,” Mounger said. “There are lots of ways of verifying who somebody is.” The officers could have radioed the Jail Division to inquire about Jones, he said, or asked another employee to come out and identify her. As it happened, she was only identified by co-workers after she was handcuffed and taken inside the police headquarters building.

“Hopefully, they’ll find out the officers were a little too abrupt and overreacted rather than go after Miss Jones,” Mounger said.

He said Jones had not returned to work and was “placed off duty by the doctor at least until Monday.”

Mounger, a criminal lawyer, could not say if Jones planned any lawsuits over the incident. “If there were to be some kind of civil suit,” he said, “that would be done by another firm.”

City Councilman Marvin Braude, new chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he would “make inquiries” into the matter. Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas called for a Police Commission investigation. “Employees ought not to come to work and be subjected to this kind of violence,” Ridley-Thomas said.