1985 Police Beating May Have Killed Youth, Attorney Says

The attorney for the family of a 16-year-old boy who died after a 1985 South-Central Los Angeles “rock” house raid said Wednesday that he has presented the district attorney’s office with new evidence that the youth may have been beaten to death by police officers.

Leon P. Gilbert of Woodland Hills, attorney for Corey Robinson’s family, said the evidence came in deposition testimony in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the city, which was settled this summer for $400,000.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger J. Gunson, head of special investigations, said the new evidence does not prove Los Angeles police officers used excessive force against the teen-ager. “It does not change the status of our 1987 decision (not to file charges),” he said.

He conceded, however, that the new evidence could have been considered as the basis for a charge of involuntary manslaughter had the statute of limitations not expired three years ago. Involuntary manslaughter is an unlawful but unintentional killing.

Robinson, a Crenshaw High School student who had been working at the house where rock cocaine was sold, hid in an attic during the Sept. 16, 1985, raid at 549 W. 109th Place. Police said he became combative when they tried to arrest him. But Gilbert said four police officers said in sworn statements that they saw the 5-foot-6 youth, who weighed 110 pounds, being struck by 12 to 15 baton blows.

The lawyer also said Dr. Joseph L. Cogan, a deputy medical examiner, had revised his earlier conclusions and believed it was possible that the beating caused Robinson’s death.

In his original autopsy report, Cogan attributed Robinson’s death to “acute cocaine intoxication.” But in the recent deposition, the coroner said the amount of cocaine in the youth’s system was “insufficient to cause his death.”

But Gunson said Cogan did not specifically determine that the baton blows caused Robinson’s death.

The statements were obtained in connection with the family’s civil suit against the city of Los Angeles. On July 8, Robinson’s 6-year-old daughter was awarded a $400,000 settlement.

Gilbert said he was disappointed by the district attorney’s failure to prosecute based on the new information. “The Rodney King case apparently has not made an impact on the D.A.’s office,” he said, referring to the police beating last March of an unarmed motorist. “Nothing has changed.”