Jury Acquits Officer on 2 Brutality Charges

After a tense 2 1/2 days of deliberations, a Ventura County jury acquitted an Oxnard police officer Wednesday on two counts of police brutality but returned deadlocked on two other charges.

As his wife, Monika, cried and clutched a friend’s hands, Officer Robert Flinn let out a sigh of relief when he heard the jury read its verdict in front of a courtroom packed with supporters and top-ranking police officials.

Flinn was charged with four counts of assault under the color of authority for allegedly striking 30-year-old Juan Lopez with his metal flashlight after a foot chase last year and for kicking Victor Aguiar in the face during an arrest in December 1995.

“My wife and I are pleased; it is one less problem for us to deal with now,” Flinn said outside the courthouse after the verdicts were read. “We appreciate all the support the community has given us.”

The judge declared a mistrial on the counts for which the jury could not obtain a verdict, so Flinn could be charged on those again.

Prosecutors issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying they will decide next week whether to refile the case.

The verdict was returned early Wednesday afternoon after the jury forewoman sent a note to Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren indicating that the panel had reached consensus on two counts related to Lopez, but were deadlocked on two others involving Aguiar and Lopez.

With more than 60 people crowded into his courtroom, Perren inquired about the impasse. The forewoman, at times holding the hand of another weeping juror, said there was nothing the court could do to break the deadlock.

They had voted three times, she said, and each time the vote was the same: 11 to 1 in favor of a not guilty verdict in the count alleging that Flinn kicked Aguiar and 7 to 5 in support of a not guilty verdict in the charge that he hit Lopez with the flashlight.

The jury unanimously found Flinn not guilty of two charges alleging that he struck Lopez on the ground three more times with his flashlight and then kneed him in the face.

With the jury’s assurances that additional deliberations would be futile, Perren asked the clerk to read the verdicts.

As she uttered the words “not guilty,” Flinn leaned back in relief, closed his eyes and smiled. A supporter among the officers seated behind him yelled “Yes!” as the second not-guilty verdict was read, and Flinn embraced his attorney, William Hadden.

Perren thanked and excused the panel of two men and 10 women, many of whom were crying.

“This is an important case,” Perren said. “The enormity of it, I know, doesn’t escape you.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley, who prosecuted the case, could not be reached for comment after the verdict.

But defense attorney Hadden said prosecutors would be foolish to refile. “It would just seem punitive,” he said.

Outside the courtroom, some jurors said they felt the district attorney’s office should not have filed charges in the first place.

“They are on a witch hunt,” said one juror, who asked not to be identified. “I think [Flinn] was an Oxnard police officer doing his job.”

Other jurors explained that after 2 1/2 days of stressful--and at times contentious--deliberations, they simply could not agree on verdicts on the first two counts. And there just was not enough evidence to convict Flinn on the other charges, they said.

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“We didn’t feel like the charges were proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” said juror Terri Thomas of Ventura.

Jurors--even those who believed that Flinn had struck Lopez in the face with the flashlight--said they disregarded Frawley’s claim that other Oxnard police officers had obeyed an unspoken “code of silence” as a peripheral issue.

Several officers testified during the trial that they had seen no abuse.

Only one, former Oxnard Officer David Hawtin, testified that he had seen Flinn strike Lopez above the eye with his flashlight after a foot chase through the Colonia neighborhood.

However, several jurors, who asked not to be identified, said they did not find Hawtin or Lopez to be credible witnesses. Some said Lopez could have sustained the cut above his eye from the fall when he was being arrested by Flinn.

“Are you going to believe a guy who was high on heroin who had no problem shoving a 10-year-old girl out of his way while he ran from police?” said one female juror, who voted for acquittal on all four counts.

But holdout juror Teresa Cortez said she believed that Flinn did strike Lopez with his flashlight. She was one of the five jurors who voted for conviction on that count.

“It was very hard and stressful for us because we knew we were dealing with people’s lives,” Cortez said. “But from the evidence, I believe he struck Lopez.”

Cortez said she had a hard time finding any credible evidence that the department or other Oxnard officers were trying to conceal information to protect Flinn.

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“I didn’t think the department was on trial here,” she said.

The department and Flinn now face a civil lawsuit by Lopez, filed in a Los Angeles federal court by civil rights attorney Samuel Paz, who said he was not surprised by the verdict.

“Juries are somewhat reluctant to find criminal offenses arising out of law enforcement duties, absent a videotape or some other very concrete evidence,” Paz said. “They give police officers the benefit of the doubt.”

But Paz said the civil case will not have the same burden of proof, and a civil jury might be more willing to make a finding against the police.

Throughout the trial, Oxnard Police Cmdr. Jeff Young listened to the testimony of more than 30 witnesses and took notes. Young said the department will now conduct an internal investigation into the charges.

“On any case like this we have to wait for the criminal trial to be complete before we open the internal affairs investigation,” he said.

Young said that citizens can make complaints against the department “without any fear of retribution and assurances that we will take it seriously and investigate.”