U.S. Attorney Probes Police Brutality Case

An Oxnard police officer who escaped conviction on brutality charges last year is under investigation by a federal grand jury examining whether he violated the civil rights of two men he is accused of beating.

Although a Ventura County jury acquitted 30-year-old Officer Robert Flinn last year on two counts of police brutality and deadlocked in favor of acquittal on two others, the U.S. Attorney’s office is investigating the case.

Much like the police officers in the Rodney King case, Flinn, a seven-year department veteran, can be prosecuted under federal law for the alleged beatings, which occurred more than two years ago.

In the trial, prosecutors said Flinn, who has been described by his superiors and fellow officers as an exceptional policeman, kneed a suspect in the face during an arrest in late 1995 and smacked a robbery suspect in the head with a flashlight in early 1996.

After the trial, one juror called the case against Flinn “a witch hunt,” saying the officer was being punished for doing his job and that the witnesses who testified against him were not credible.

But the U.S. Attorney’s office, with the help of the FBI, began conducting its own investigation last summer.

On Monday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jonathan S. Shapiro confirmed that a federal grand jury investigation in Los Angeles was underway, but declined to disclose any details.

“I can say that, as with any grand jury investigation, it will be as thorough and complete as possible,” Shapiro said.

Flinn’s attorney William Hadden would not comment on the case and has advised his client not to comment.

More than a dozen Oxnard police officers and top commanders have been called to testify before the grand jury, department sources said.

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But the department was officially tight-lipped about the case.

“As with any ongoing investigation, we cannot comment,” said Assistant Chief Tom Cady.

But many Oxnard Police Department officers have expressed anger with the U.S. Attorney’s decision to pursue the case, said Senior Officer Steve Moore, president of the 218-member Oxnard Peace Officers Assn.

“The purpose of the civil rights laws is to give defendants protection from bias by the local judiciary, and there wasn’t any bias in this case,” Moore said. “The evidence in this case was already fully and fairly heard in court, and Flinn was not found guilty.”

Several other department officials, who asked to remain anonymous, said the inquiry was hard to ignore with officers heading to Los Angeles to testify each Tuesday for the last four or five weeks.

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Some who have testified said the investigation seemed to go beyond whether or not Flinn beat or struck the two men. Several officers said the U.S. Attorney’s questions were directed at whether anyone within the department lied or concealed information during the investigation.

“This dude [Shapiro] is looking to take people down,” said one officer who has testified.

The officer said that under the threat of obstruction of justice charges, he and others with the department were warned by federal prosecutors not to discuss the case.

During last year’s state trial, Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley accused Oxnard officers of adhering to a “code of silence” to protect Flinn.

It was a charge that offended many officers, causing a rift between the district attorney’s office and the department. Soon after the trial ended, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury met with a large contingent of Oxnard officers to help ease tensions.

During Flinn’s trial, several officers took the stand, but only one, former Oxnard Officer David Hawtin, testified that he had seen Flinn strike one of the suspects.

Officers said Flinn, who was recently put on desk duty, was bracing himself for another trial.

“He’s already been through the wringer once on this, and he ain’t looking forward to going through it again,” one officer said.

During the state trial and the subsequent internal affairs investigation, Flinn remained on unpaid administrative leave. But he returned to duty after eight months when the department cleared him of wrongdoing, saying: “I was a good cop, I am a good cop.”

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Prosecutors had called Flinn “a bully with a badge.”

One of the men he is accused of beating, Juan Lopez, 31, testified in the state trial that Flinn struck him after a foot chase through the La Colonia neighborhood on Jan. 27, 1996.

But Lopez agreed to drop a civil lawsuit last June against Flinn and the department in exchange for $20,000. Lopez, an admitted heroin addict, was awarded the money while in the county jail on charges unrelated to his arrest by Flinn.