Slain Officer Had Gotten a Reprimand

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” when he was an officer in Los Angeles, court records obtained Monday show.

Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark, 28, was killed in a shootout with schoolteacher Daniel Allen Tuffree, who is 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 defending himself when he fired out his kitchen window at Clark.

Attorneys are also using the document in an attempt to persuade 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. And LAPD officials have told defense attorneys they lost four citizen complaints lodged against Clark during his tenure in that department, public defender Richard 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 Los Angeles internal affairs officers who investigated the citizen complaints.

Clark resigned from the LAPD in March, three months after the reprimand was issued 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 nothing to do with Clark’s departure.

“He left as an officer in good standing,” said LAPD Capt. Bruce Crosley.

But Holly said the complaints and the reprimand fit into Tuffree’s defense that Clark and his colleagues made wrong decisions that precipitated the Simi Valley 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 contends that Clark fired at Tuffree first and that the high school teacher only 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 reprimand, signed by Williams on Dec. 11, 1994, was forwarded to the Los Angeles Police Commission.

It states that Clark was driving an LAPD cruiser on April 19, 1994, when he and his 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 cruiser 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 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 said 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.

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