Officer Won’t Be Tried in Boy’s Beating

A Compton police officer who was videotaped beating a teen-ager in a trailer park last summer will not be prosecuted due to insufficient evidence, the district attorney’s office announced Thursday.

The case raised racial tensions because Officer Michael Jackson is black and the boy he beat, 17-year-old Felipe Soltero, is Latino. Compton has a steadily rising Latino population and a predominantly black power structure.

“We do not conclude that Officer Jackson’s actions were entirely necessary,” a report released by prosecutors states.

“There simply is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (he) violated criminal law.”

The decision, outlined in a lengthy letter to Compton Police Chief Hourie Taylor, follows a six-month inquiry by investigators for Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti.

Hourie had asked Garcetti to look into the incident, which occurred in July, when Jackson went to the teen-ager’s home to investigate a possible child neglect case involving the boy and his younger siblings.

The videotape, recorded by a neighbor and aired on local television, shows the officer dragging Soltero from his front yard and over to a car, where he pummeled the boy with a baton.

“It’s unbelievable,” Compton community activist Art Pulito said of the decision not to prosecute.

Pulito said the decision is an injustice to the Latino community.

“This is a slap in our face,” he said.