Witness in 6 Officers’ Trial Says He Lied About Attack

A key prosecution witness in the civil rights trial of six Los Angeles County narcotics officers testified Thursday that he lied in 1987 when he told his attorney that one of the defendants struck him with a flashlight during a jailhouse interview.

Ricky Donnell Ross, a convicted drug dealer, had accused Los Angeles Police Detective Stephen W. Polak of hitting him in the head. Polak is one of six officers accused of violating the civil rights of Ross and other drug dealers by allegedly beating suspects, planting narcotics and stealing drug money.

Ross, 31, testified in federal court that he lied about the jailhouse beating, which his attorney had cited in lodging a formal complaint against Polak and other officers. Ross said he was in jail at the time because the defendants had planted narcotics on him and fabricated a story that he shot at the officers after a car chase.