Slain Simi Officer Was Reprimanded by LAPD : Police: Williams cited Michael Clark in 1994 for ‘unauthorized tactics.’ The information could affect his accused killer’s trial.

The Simi Valley police officer slain in August was reprimanded a few months before his death by Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams for using “unauthorized tactics leading to an officer-involved shooting,” court records obtained Monday show.

Officer Michael Clark, 28, was killed in a shootout with schoolteacher Daniel Allen Tuffree, who has been charged with first-degree murder and faces the death penalty if convicted. Tuffree’s lawyers hope to use the December 1994 reprimand to bolster their contention that Tuffree was merely defending himself when he fired out his kitchen window at Clark.

Attorneys are also using the document to try to convince a judge that LAPD officials may be withholding information on the patrol officer, who served 2 1/2 years in their Devonshire Division before coming to Simi Valley in May.

The reprimand was not initially included in a personnel file turned over to Ventura County investigators, court filings stated. In fact, investigators for the district attorney’s office would not have known of it except for a comment by Clark’s widow, who granted them access to the records.

Also, the LAPD file did not include four citizen complaints lodged against Clark during his tenure in the department, public defender Richard Holly said in court documents. Clark’s Simi Valley file included a reference to the complaints, but Los Angeles police officials have since told defense attorneys that the files are lost, Holly said. LAPD officials declined to comment on the matter.

On Monday, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Allan Steele supplied defense attorneys with the names of LAPD internal affairs officers who investigated the citizen complaints.

Clark resigned from the Los Angeles department in March, three months after Williams issued the reprimand for an incident in which Clark’s partner shot a suspected drug dealer. Clark’s decision to drive his patrol car directly at the suspect’s truck precipitated the shooting, Williams concluded.

LAPD officials said the reprimand had no connection to Clark’s departure.

“He left as an officer in good standing,” said Capt. Bruce Crosley, who recommended rehiring Clark if he decided to return to the department.

But Holly said the complaints and the reprimand fit with Tuffree’s defense that Clark and his colleagues made wrong decisions that precipitated the shooting.

Holly has contended that Clark and two other Simi Valley police officers should not have approached Tuffree’s house with their guns drawn. Holly also asserts that Clark fired at Tuffree first and that the high school teacher fired back in self-defense.

Prosecutor Peter Kossoris declined to discuss the case Monday.

But during grand jury hearings into the matter, Kossoris and co-counsel Patricia Murphy argued that Tuffree held a grudge against the Simi Valley Police Department and intended to kill Clark.

The LAPD reprimand, signed by Williams Dec. 11, 1994, was forwarded to the Los Angeles Police Commission.

It states that Clark was driving an LAPD cruiser April 19, 1994, when he and partner Officer Carl Oschmann joined another patrol car in pursuit of a drug suspect in the Sherman Oaks area.

When the suspect stopped his truck on a freeway ramp, Clark drove directly toward the driver’s door to block his escape, known in police parlance as an L-maneuver, according to the reprimand. But Clark said the cruiser’s brakes failed and the cruiser nearly rammed the truck. As the patrol car approached the truck, Oschmann opened his door and rolled out of the moving car before firing two shots at the suspect, according to the reprimand.

The suspect, Terry Parker, was struck once in the chest and was arrested on charges of evading a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer. Parker recovered from his wounds, Williams said in his report forwarded to the Los Angeles Police Commission.

*

“I have determined Officers [Oschmann] and Clark’s tactics are seriously deficient and require administrative disapproval,” Williams said. He added that the “officers’ poor deployment was the beginning of a series of tactical errors that precipitated an officer-involved shooting.”

Williams suspended Oschmann for eight days for the shooting. The only action taken against Clark was placing the reprimand in his personnel file, Crosley said.

“If you’ve been around much, you get stuff in your [personnel] package,” Crosley said.

Simi Valley police officials, citing employee confidentiality, would not say whether they knew about Clark’s LAPD reprimand when he was hired.

Times staff writer Mack Reed and correspondent Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this story.