Ex-Officer to Avoid Retrial in Slayings

In a ruling that outraged many in the area’s Samoan community, a Superior Court judge on Wednesday refused to order a new trial for a former Compton police officer accused of fatally shooting two Samoan brothers a total of 19 times, mostly in their backs.

A jury deadlocked last month 9 to 3 in favor of acquitting Albert Skiles Jr., 44, after deliberating for seven days. Prosecutors had sought to have Skiles retried on two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of Pouvi Tualaulelei, 34, and Itali Tualaulelei, 22. The two men were killed by Skiles on Feb. 12, 1991, after the officer was called to their home during a domestic dispute.

The district attorney’s office indicated late Wednesday that the ruling by Judge John H. Reid will not be appealed. The victims’ relatives, however, said they will press for federal charges against Skiles. They have already filed a $100-million civil suit in the case.

Skiles contended in testimony during his trial that the brothers attacked him and that one tried to take his gun. A third brother, Ieti, who was 18 at the time, testified that he watched the incident from a kitchen window and heard Skiles order the two men to their knees before he shot them.

The dismissal of the case Wednesday prompted the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department to go on temporary tactical alert as a precaution against a violent reaction in the Samoan community, but there were no unlawful incidents.

Skiles wept upon hearing Judge Reid rule that he would not be retried. Earlier this year he retired from the Compton Police Department on a medical leave, citing emotional turmoil brought on by the shooting and its aftermath.

Skiles was hurried from the downtown Criminal Courts Building after the hearing Wednesday. Later, in an interview with Associated Press, he praised Reid for making a “tough decision.” Skiles said he wishes he could “turn back the clock and not take that radio call” that led to the shootings of the Tualauleleis.

Chief Ietitaia Tualaulelei, an uncle of the dead men who was also at the court hearing, walked out as Reid read a prepared statement explaining his ruling.

“You can’t find justice in the American system to put it bluntly. What I’ve seen today is American justice at its best,” Ietitaia Tualaulelei said sarcastically. “Someone can commit murder and get away with it.”

The Tualaulelei family, he said, would petition the U.S. State Department for help in its effort to get federal authorities to file civil rights violation charges against Skiles.

The family is related to the royal family of Western Samoa, an island in the Pacific. Chief Tualaulelei is a former adviser to the government of New Zealand on the affairs of native Pacific Islanders.

Pouvi Tualaulelei worked as a constable on Western Samoa before he emigrated to the United States with other members of his family, including Itali, who was a scholarship student and football player at El Camino College.

After Reid’s ruling Wednesday, Terry Toomata, an official with the Western Samoan Embassy in Washington, said officials would aid the family in seeking federal charges against Skiles.

At a news conference in Carson later in the day, Chief Tuaau Pele Faletogo, chairman of the Committee for Justice for the Tualaulelei Brothers, said Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner should appeal Reid’s decision.

He also called upon President Bush to assist in the effort for a federal investigation to determine if Skiles violated the civil rights of the Tualaulelei brothers when he shot them.

“Judge Reid’s decision was an insult to the Samoan people. . . . It sends a message to the law enforcement community that it is OK to beat and slaughter our people,” Faletogo said.

Julie Tualaulelei, widow of Pouvi Tualaulelei, called the judge’s decision “a slap in everybody’s face. . . .”

“We’ve got to stop police brutality,” she said. “We love America. We don’t need this kind of treatment.”

In Samoa, chiefs are considered the leaders of their communities, but in the United States their titles are more ceremonial. There are about 12,000 Samoans in the Los Angeles area, according the U.S. Census Bureau, most of them in Carson, Long Beach and Compton.

In making his ruling Wednesday, Reid said he could not imagine any new evidence the prosecution could present that would warrant a new trial for Skiles, who was a 12-year veteran of the Compton Police Department at the time of the shooting.

Reid said that another trial would be too costly under the circumstances. He also praised the deadlocked jury for its “diligence” and hard work, noting that they deliberated seven days before taking a first ballot in the case and still could not reach a unanimous decision.

“I can’t conceive of ever reaching a verdict in this case,” Reid said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Healey also said he was disappointed by the ruling, saying he thought the case should have been decided by a jury instead of a judge.

Immediately after the ruling, he said the case might be appealed or the charges refiled against Skiles, but later retreated from that statement.

An appeal was unlikely, he said, because there was little chance that an appellate court would overturn Reid’s decision. And he was not sure the prosecution had a legal right to retry the case.

Legal experts agreed on both points.

“They may be stuck with the judge’s ruling,” said Stanley Goldman, a professor of law at Loyola Law School who specializes in criminal law and procedure.

Peter Arenella, a UCLA law professor and nationally recognized expert on criminal law and procedure, saw little chance that the prosecution would be allowed to refile the charges against Skiles.

“There’s a slight little problem in our Constitution called double jeopardy,” Arenella said. “It’s extremely unlikely that the prosecution would be permitted to refile these charges because of the nature of the reasons given by the trial judge for his dismissal of the case.”