Youth Beaten by Compton Officer Awarded No Damages

A federal jury on Friday found that a Compton police officer violated the rights of a teen-ager in a trailer park confrontation and beating that was partially videotaped by a neighbor, but the jury refused to award the youth any monetary damages.

Attorney George Franscell, who represented Officer Michael Jackson in the case, said the seven-member jury reached its unanimous verdict after consideration of instructions from U.S. District Judge Spencer Letts.

The judge told the jury that if the police officer entered the yard surrounding the trailer occupied by the family of Felipe Soltero, 18, without permission and arrested Soltero, then it was a false arrest that violated the youth’s constitutional rights, sources said.

“But what happened after that occurred outside the yard,” the attorney said. “Soltero would have been arrested then anyway because he struck the officer, so there are no real damages. The jurors agreed that Jackson’s use of the baton was OK.”

Last February, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the black officer in the beating of the Latino youth. Latino activists denounced the prosecutors’ decision.

In his report to Compton Police Chief Hourie Taylor, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said the incident last July 29 began when Beth Rodriguez, a Department of Children’s Services social worker, went to the trailer park on West 156th Street to investigate allegations of child neglect.

Rodriguez said that when Soltero, then 17, refused to let her enter his family’s trailer, she called her supervisor and Jackson was dispatched to the scene.

The report states that when Soltero refused Jackson entry, the officer “ordered Felipe to turn around to be handcuffed. Felipe refused. Officer Jackson placed his arm on Soltero to turn him around. . . .

“Five witnesses . . . state that Soltero struck Officer Jackson in the head with a closed fist,” the report continues. “Felipe Soltero denies ever hitting the officer.”

According to the report, a struggle ensued, with Soltero and the officer ending up on the ground.

During the struggle, Felipe’s sister, Brenda Soltero, struck Jackson on the head, according to six witnesses.

The youth and the officer then got to their feet.

“It is at this point that the videotape, shot from two trailers away, begins,” the report states.

The 59-second tape, shot secretly by a neighbor and subsequently aired on local television, shows Jackson lunging at Soltero and apparently knocking him to the ground with a sharp blow from the butt of his baton to the youth’s cheek. Bystanders can be heard screaming in the background.

The district attorney’s office said the youth then appears to try to kick Jackson, and “the officer responds by striking Soltero four or five times in the torso as Soltero falls to the ground.”

The report states that when Soltero ignored Jackson’s commands to place his hands behind his back, Jackson struck the youth in the legs, jumped on him, handcuffed him and yanked him to his feet, using the baton as a hoist.

At a nearby hospital where Soltero was treated for a bruise on his elbow, doctors concluded that his condition was “within normal limits,” the report states.

Jackson has not returned to work since shortly after the incident. He was placed on administrative leave Aug. 2, receiving full pay. A few months ago, he applied for medical retirement, which would give him 50% of his pay.

The medical retirement request is based on a knee injury Jackson received before the Soltero arrest. Police officials said the city will not contest Jackson’s retirement.

They said a job offer made to Jackson by the San Jose Police Department before the Soltero incident was withdrawn after the litigation was filed against him.

Times correspondent Emily Adams contributed to this story.