Teen Beaten by Police Officer Seeks New Trial
A Compton teen-ager, beaten by a police officer last summer in a highly publicized encounter that a neighbor videotaped, asked a federal judge Monday for a new trial.
On July 21, a jury found that Officer Michael Jackson violated Felipe Soltero’s civil rights, but that the injuries the boy suffered on July 29, 1994, were not sufficiently serious to award him compensatory damages.
Soltero’s lawyers now want U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts to grant a new trial, arguing that the jury was wrongly influenced by government allegations that the youth was involved with gangs.
Jackson said at the trial that he was threatened by Soltero, and punched by his sister, and that the force he used--he struck Soltero in the head and face with a baton--was reasonable and necessary.
Soltero, who claims he suffered a concussion and an injured shoulder, filed a $7-million federal civil rights suit on Aug. 10 last year.
Letts has scheduled a Sept. 11 hearing on the new trial request.
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