4 Deputies Cleared in Beating Case

In a setback for the U.S. Justice Department, a federal jury Tuesday acquitted four sheriff’s deputies of charges that they violated the civil rights of a Missouri trucker by beating him in the parking lot of a Whittier mini-mall five years ago.

The case marked the first federal civil rights prosecution of police officers since the March, 1991, beating of motorist Rodney G. King sparked a nationwide outcry over police brutality. The government has since indicted three Los Angeles police officers and a former officer on similar civil rights charges in the King case.

The four Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies--Sam Ferri, 38; Everett Maldonado, 33; Joseph Lomonaco, 35, and Bruce Prewett, 39, all of the Norwalk station--were accused of using excessive force against trucker Coy Blane Willbanks and falsifying reports to cover up the February, 1987, incident.

The government had come under fire in the case for bringing the prosecution more than five years after the alleged beating, and defense lawyers said Tuesday that the delay may have figured into the jury’s decision.

Conflicting accounts of the incident emerged during trial testimony, perhaps because of the witnesses’ faded memories, the lawyers said. In addition, the defense repeatedly accused the government of bringing the prosecution for political reasons in the wake of the King beating--an argument that apparently played well with jurors.

“The jurors seemed to agree that there may have been some political overtones to the prosecution,” said Donald Re, who represented Ferri and spoke with panel members after they reached their verdicts. “They were concerned about it.”

Said attorney Roger Cossack, who represented Maldonado: “I think they (jurors) had a reasonable doubt about what happened. These events happened over five years ago, and the government witnesses conflicted over their testimony.”

In a measure of the importance of the case, the Justice Department brought in two attorneys from its civil rights division in Washington to handle the trial. Prosecutors Suzanne Drouet and Barbara Mack could not be reached after the verdicts, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined comment.

During the trial, the prosecution tried to show that the officers violated Willbanks’ civil rights by beating and kicking him after he refused to move his illegally parked tractor-trailer rig from the mini-mall lot. In addition, the government alleged that the officers gave false testimony during Willbanks’ criminal trial.

The trucker, then 26, was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting officers, but was acquitted of the criminal charges and later received $150,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed against the county.

The defense maintained that Willbanks struggled violently to resist arrest. According to attorney Cossack, the defense strategy was to portray Willbanks as a physically imposing man who had driven to California on just five hours sleep over several days, taking crystal methamphetamine and liquor to stay awake.

The deputies were reassigned to desk duty pending the outcome of the trial. They are now eager to get back to patrol work, their lawyers said. Had they been convicted, Ferri and Lomonaco would have faced maximum prison sentences of 13 years and $13,000 in fines. Prewett and Maldonado faced 11 years in prison and $11,000 in fines.

Although the Justice Department has a good track record of winning civil rights prosecutions, legal experts say the cases are often difficult because they require the federal government to prove that the officers intentionally deprived the victim of his civil rights.

In addition, juries often are reluctant to convict police officers of using excessive force, as was demonstrated by a Ventura County jury’s decision to acquit the officers in the King case on state charges.

There are obvious differences between the two cases. Willbanks is white; King is black. The King beating was videotaped; the Willbanks incident was not. But comparisons have been inevitable.

Defense lawyer Cossack on Tuesday described the deputies’ trial as “a testing ground” for the federal government’s civil rights prosecution of the defendants in the King case.

Rick Newton, a Norwalk mechanic who witnessed the Willbanks incident but did not testify, said he was not surprised at the verdict.

“I knew it was going to be that way,” Newton said. “You’re not going to convict four white cops of beating a white guy after they let the cops go in the Rodney King case.”