Police Hide Behind Code of Silence, Lawyer Says : Courts: Seventeen former auto workers allege they were victims of brutality, but ‘not one of the officers saw anyone get hit,’ attorney asserts.

Los Angeles police officers brutally clubbed and mistreated workers at the Van Nuys General Motors plant in 1985 and are now trying to cloak their unlawful actions under a code of silence, a lawyer for a group of former workers who are suing the department charged Thursday.

Although the 17 plaintiffs and others in the crowd of 600 suffered broken bones, bruises and scrapes, “not one of the officers saw anyone get hit,” protested attorney Hermez Moreno, summarizing police testimony in his closing argument.

He contends that his clients, who are asking for unspecified damages in the Van Nuys Superior Court civil case, were beaten without provocation Oct. 3, 1985, by club-wielding officers.

Police said they went to the plant in response to complaints about workers drinking publicly and milling about on both sides of Van Nuys Boulevard, sometimes blocking traffic.

Within the Police Department, Moreno said: “Everything is real neat. You overreact? You beat someone up? You lie, you make things up and everything is fine.”

But Deputy City Atty. Eskel H. Solomon told jurors, who are expected to begin their deliberations today, that there was no evidence that excessive force was used or that there is a code of silence within the department.

Written reports of the incident support the officers’ assertions on the stand that they were pelted with bottles and beer cans, and that they beat only those who attacked them and resisted arrest, Solomon said.

Officers also testified that several of the plaintiffs were among those who incited the crowd by shouting obscenities and then resisted arrest.

The reports “weren’t made up after this lawsuit was filed,” Solomon said. “They weren’t made up to cover our heinies.”

He also said testimony by officers indicates that the Police Department’s internal affairs division, which investigates brutality claims, “is not a toothless tiger. Cops are afraid of it.”

According to testimony, none of the 75 officers involved in the incident were disciplined.

Solomon also took issue with statements by several plaintiffs that they would have been foolhardy to resist well-armed officers or to incite the crowd against them.

“Maybe it didn’t seem crazy to them at the time because they were part of a big crowd,” he said.

According to testimony, two of the plaintiffs were arrested for resisting officers, but their cases were dismissed after preliminary hearings.

Two others were cited for having open containers of alcohol. Their fines were paid by United Auto Workers Local 645, which at the time vigorously protested the officers’ actions.

Most of the plaintiffs, who are a racial and ethnic cross-section of the plant’s work force, are middle-aged, veteran plant workers who expressed outrage on the stand that police treated them like criminals.

Police officers “were just pushing and swinging,” said Armida Penaloza, a former plant worker who said she ducked an unprovoked baton blow that could have injured her. “They didn’t care who they hit.”

Linda Smith of Hawthorne, another former auto worker, said she was “humiliated” and “scared to death” when she came under attack by police across the street from the plant.

One officer hit her in the eye, which required medical attention, Smith testified, and two girlfriends standing beside her were struck with batons and driven to the ground.

Tomas Armendariz of Norwalk said one officer sprayed Mace in his face at short range, forcing him to run into a restaurant to get water to stop the pain.

Ten minutes later, another officer broke his arm with a baton blow as he tried to return to the plant, Armendariz said.