Suit Accuses Beverly Hills of Racism : Litigation: Six blacks file civil rights action. Officials say they treat everyone evenhandedly.

One man recalled how Beverly Hills police allegedly rushed his car in a parking garage and held a gun to his head as they interrogated him.

A teen-ager accused officers of detaining him and two friends while they walked to a neighborhood video store, leaving the three handcuffed on the curb for 45 minutes before releasing them.

Another youth, the captain of the Beverly Hills High School football team, alleged that he had been pulled over 20 times in the last 18 months. The reason in several cases: He was told he matched the description of a robbery suspect.

The accusations surfaced Tuesday when six African Americans announced the filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Beverly Hills, two City Council members and Police Chief Marvin Iannone, alleging that a racist force operates under a de facto policy that targets African American males on the streets of this well-heeled community.

Beverly Hills police refused to comment on the lawsuit, saying they had not yet received a copy. But Lt. Frank Salcido, a police spokesman, said the department takes the same evenhanded approach toward all racial and ethnic groups.

“Our policy is to enforce the law in a fair and impartial manner, and we meticulously respect the constitutional rights of the individual,” Salcido said.

Five of the African Americans suing the department for unspecified damages are teen-agers who live in Beverly Hills and attend local schools, and the sixth is a maintenance man at a Beverly Hills church. In their 72-page lawsuit, they contend that police stop and harass African Americans without “reasonable suspicion,” often pulling over black motorists for violations such as broken taillights or detaining minors who are out past the city’s 10 p.m. curfew.

In all, the six said at a news conference, they have been stopped more than 30 times in the last 18 months without ever being arrested or charged with a crime.

“We’re confronted here with racism masquerading as law enforcement,” said the group’s attorney, Robert K. Tanenbaum, a former prosecutor and onetime Beverly Hills mayor. “This is a case about freedom and equality, to be able to walk the streets without being intimidated, without being harassed by police.”

In their lawsuit, the six plaintiffs allege that Beverly Hills police and city officials, including the mayor, have “engaged in a conscious policy of deliberate indifference” by allowing such police abuses to go unchecked.

Top police and city officials, the plaintiffs allege, also have contributed to an environment of pervasive racism by ignoring specific incidents brought to their attention.

Plaintiff Pat Earthly, 29, contended that city officials disregarded his problems, even after members of the Beverly Hills church where he works sent letters on his behalf.

Earthly said he has been stopped by Beverly Hills police eight times since he began working as a maintenance man at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in August, 1993.

In one incident described in the lawsuit, a police lieutenant allegedly stopped Earthly in a city-owned parking structure downtown and pointed a gun at his head as the officer questioned where he was going and if he had ever been arrested.

Earthly explained that he was headed to a doctor’s appointment and that he had never been arrested.

In the most recent incident, on Mother’s Day this year, Earthly said he was followed by police for several blocks into the church parking lot where an officer demanded that he lie on the ground as horrified parishioners looked on.

“There was no reason for me to get on the ground,” Earthly, a Los Angeles resident, said of the incident. “I had done nothing wrong.”

Numerous church members wrote the city to complain and to demand that officials review police policies, but they say they never received an official response.

Mayor Allan Alexander would not respond to the lawsuit, nor to specific incidents involving any plaintiffs. But Alexander said the city seeks to treat everyone the same.

“The city is dedicated to equal protection for all people,” Alexander said. “That is my personal belief as well.”

Also declining comment were Councilwoman Vicki Reynolds and Chief Iannone.

Parents of the five teen-agers named in the lawsuit said they reluctantly decided to pursue legal action only after efforts to address the alleged police abuses failed.

The parents said they sought a police inquiry after an incident in January in which three teen-agers walking to a local video store allegedly were handcuffed and detained for 45 minutes without justifiable cause.

The parents said their attempts to get information about the inquiry were rebuffed at police headquarters during six months of prodding. Eventually, the parents said, they were told that a lengthy investigation found no misconduct.

“We felt like we had been blown off,” said Cheryl Jones, whose 15-year-old son, Moacir, is included in the complaint. “Had these people come to us and apologized and apologized to our kids, and could prove they were making changes, it would have satisfied us. This is not the kind of thing we wanted to do. It was a very, very hard decision.”