Case of Teacher’s Shooting Dropped After 2 Trials

Acknowledging that “a fruitless dead end” had been reached in their investigation, prosecutors reluctantly announced Monday that they will not seek a third attempted-murder trial of two gang members accused of the near-fatal shooting of Los Angeles elementary school teacher Alfredo Perez.

Two juries had deadlocked in favor of acquittal of Frazier Francis and Antonio Moses, both 19. In both cases the key witness--who had originally told police he saw one of the suspects fire a gun--softened his testimony.

Both trials were laced with implications of gang intimidation of the witness, James McClenand. After Monday’s court proceedings in Compton Superior Court, defendant Moses’ father talked bluntly about his belief that friends of his son had sent menacing signals to McClenand.

“He’s off the hook now,” said A.C. Moses. During the first trial, the elder Moses had predicted to a reporter that McClenand would “probably be iced” if either defendant were convicted.

“I know [McClenand] is glad this is all over,” Moses said from his home Monday.

Judge John H. Leahy dismissed the charges against Francis and Moses, ruling that the two could never again be tried for the shooting, no matter what new evidence might surface.

Deputy District Atty. Laura Laesecke conceded that it was unlikely another jury would convict Francis and Moses based on the evidence offered in the previous trials.

Leahy denied Laesecke’s request that the charges be dismissed “without prejudice,” which would have permitted the case to be refiled if new evidence surfaced.

“I cannot conceive of a verdict other than the two that have already been reached,” Leahy said.

Perez was wounded in the brain last February when a stray bullet from an alleged gang dispute smashed through the library window of Figueroa Street Elementary School in South-Central Los Angeles, where Perez was teaching his fifth-grade students.

Perez was not expected to live, but made a dramatic recovery. He is now able to talk, and can walk with the aid of a cane.

“This is frustrating,” Laesecke said outside the courtroom, acknowledging that it is “extremely unlikely” that anyone else will ever be prosecuted for the crime and saying she is certain that McClenand changed his testimony because he feared gang retaliation.

“I have no proof that the gang came to him and threatened him, but I know that he felt the pressure and his fear was real.”

McClenand had told the police on the morning of Feb. 22 that he had seen a member of the Hoover Crip gang flash a hand sign at several rival Denver Lane Bloods--including the two defendants--as the Crip drove by them on 111th Place.

Then, according to McClenand’s taped statement to police, he saw Moses order Francis to shoot at the rival. Prosecutors said one of those shots smashed through the library window.

On the witness stand in both trials, however, McClenand denied that he ever saw the shooting, saying he had only heard the shots. In response to prosecutors’ questions, he said he had heard he was “gonna get my head blown off” if the suspects were convicted.

Laesecke said that despite an intense investigation, no other witnesses had come forward.

With the case closed, the younger Moses will begin a six-year state prison term for violating the conditions of his probation from a 1995 manslaughter conviction.

Francis will be released from County Jail within two days. A large homecoming party is being planned for him, according to friends in his neighborhood.