CANOGA PARK : Officer’s Battery Charge Dismissed

A battery charge was dismissed Monday against a Los Angeles police officer who had been accused of kicking, slapping and dragging a handcuffed man he had ticketed for jaywalking, the district attorney’s office said.

“I’m walking on clouds right now,” Traffic Officer Clark Baker said Monday. “My reputation was really slimed. I’m trying to re-establish my reputation.”

The charge against Baker, 36, was dropped at the behest of David Sotelo, the deputy district attorney who originally prosecuted the case and was later criticized by an appeals panel for comments he made to jurors during that trial.

Baker was charged in 1992 with battery and using excessive force during the 1991 jaywalking skirmish with a 21-year-old Salvadoran immigrant in Canoga Park.

A jury deadlocked on the excessive force charge, but in 1993 convicted the then-12-year veteran of the force on the misdemeanor battery charge. Baker appealed, and a Superior Court appeals panel overturned that conviction in April, saying prosecutor Sotelo improperly influenced the jury by comparing this case with those of the officers charged in the beating of Rodney G. King.

The panel also said Baker’s Glendale attorney, Bob Wilson, failed to provide his client adequate counsel by not objecting to Sotelo’s remarks.

After Baker filed his appeal, according to Sotelo, the officer went ahead and served the sentence of 350 hours of community service, even though the conviction was eventually to be overturned. So, Sotelo said, even if the case were retried, Baker would have completed his sentence.

Baker, who has been on administrative duty awaiting the outcome of the proceedings, will likely be moved back to traffic duty immediately, said his current attorney, Barry Levin.