Officers Get Probation in Excess Force : Crime: Municipal judge sentences two narcotics agents for assault on suspect during drug raid.

Two narcotics officers were sentenced Tuesday to three years’ probation, 100 hours of volunteer work and $500 fines for their misdemeanor convictions of assault on a criminal suspect during a drug raid earlier this year.

Drug agents Jacob Rudershausen of the National City Police Department and Harvey Love of the San Diego Police Department were sentenced after Municipal Judge Jay M. Bloom said both men “are perhaps victims of the drug war as much as anyone else.”

After the highly emotional, five-hour hearing in a courtroom packed with police officers and federal drug agents, Rudershausen’s mother had to be restrained by her husband from attacking a San Diego County prosecutor.

Outside the courtroom, she pounded the wall in frustration after Jeff Dusek, a deputy district attorney, recommended that her son be sentenced to two or three weeks in jail because he was named in two other civil suits involving alleged police misconduct in which his department had to pay a settlement.

Moments later, in a corner of the hallway, the mother and son sat on a bench and wept.

Rudershausen and Love are the first officers to be convicted in an assault case since 1974. In July, a jury determined that both officers used excessive force in a drug arrest involving Alphonso Reyes, 20, who is serving a one-year jail sentence on a narcotics charge as a result of the incident.

Love, 35, an eight-year San Diego police officer, and Rudershausen, 35, a nine-year National City officer, were members of the multi-agency narcotics task force when the incident occurred last January.

During a methamphetamine bust, Rudershausen was accused of slapping the handcuffed Reyes on the back of the head while Love kneed him in the groin and punched him twice in the abdomen.

In the trial, Love testified that he believed Reyes was trying to destroy evidence by swallowing some of the narcotics. Rudershausen did not testify, but his attorney said he used “appropriate force” in dealing with Reyes.

Reyes testified that he did not know who hit him and believed Love was behind him when he was kneed in the groin. But a National City sergeant, Don Berstler, testified that he saw both acts of violence.

Rudershausen has received a 30-day suspension without pay and a demotion to patrol, which he said he would not appeal. He could not be reached for comment after the hearing.

San Diego police administrators have recommended a 20-day suspension without pay for Love, followed by a demotion. Love said after the hearing that he did not plan to appeal his demotion to the Civil Service Commission.

But Love said after the sentencing that he and Rudershausen should never have been convicted for doing their jobs.

“They can second guess us all the time, but, when you’re in the situation and trying to deal with it the best you can, nobody is there to help you,” Love said. “You have to make whatever decision you make and stand by it. It came down to one guy who sees what occurs and doesn’t know what’s going on, and that is what I’m being judged on. What can you do?”

Attorneys Everett Bobbitt and James Gattey, representing the officers, argued that a new trial should be granted because the prosecution used evidence that shouldn’t have been presented in court. Judge Bloom denied their motion.

Bobbitt and Gattey had more than 20 officers testify on behalf of Rudershausen and Love. Almost to a man, the officers described both men as exemplary drug agents who never used more force than was necessary.

During sentencing, Bloom struggled with the delicate balance between the force officers should use and the danger they face on streets full of drug dealers and violence.

“With regard to these officers, one could not help think that, in a sense, they are perhaps victims of the drug war just as much as anyone else,” he said. “I’m sure they’ve had years of putting their lives on the line on a day-to-day basis and have the frustrations of, in essence, putting their finger in the dike of Grand Coulee Dam trying to stop the drug flow.”

Sentencing both men was not an easy task, he said.

“This is somewhat of a microcosm of what is going on in our society as far as what is appropriate for an officer to do--what is acceptable and what is not,” he said. “It’s a tragic case on all sides. I’m not certain in my own mind what is justice.”

Bobbitt, a former El Cajon police officer, said he planned to appeal the convictions.

“I wouldn’t be a cop on the street today,” he said. “All the risks that we used to know before are there, but, in addition, you’re ending up on the defense table for arresting dopers. It’s horrible. Every cop in town lost on this one.”

Bobbitt and Dusek clashed repeatedly Tuesday, particularly when the prosecutor asked that Rudershausen be sentenced to jail time.

Dusek noted that two civil cases were brought against Rudershausen, once when he was an Imperial Beach police officer and once in National City. In one case, a suspect said he had been handcuffed and that Rudershausen broke his arm with a baton. The other involved an accusation of false imprisonment. One case resulted in a judgment of $3,000, the other in a $1,000 judgment.

“Whether or not the damages were $3,000, $3 or $3 million, it makes no difference,” Dusek said. Rudershausen “was still found liable for conduct in each of those instances. . . . It’s not the first time around the block for (his) violent misbehavior.”

In addition to the jail time for Rudershausen, Dusk recommended one year’s probation, a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service for both men.

Bobbitt was furious about a mention of jail time, especially because Rudershausen’s probation report mentioned that he was frightened about serving time behind bars.

“I think it’s wonderful that a deputy district attorney, knowing the facts of this case, would stand up and say, ‘Put that guy in jail’ (knowing) he’s terrified of going to jail,” Bobbitt said. “For a deputy district attorney to ask this court to do that, so he can have his fun, and watch him get terrorized in the jail frankly appalls me. I’m embarrassed that he’s a member of the bar.”