Murray’s Victory Marred by Traffic Stop

After winning a hard-fought primary campaign for a state Senate seat, Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) left his victory party in his Corvette early Wednesday morning, heading with his fiancee to Restaurant Row on La Cienega Boulevard for a late-night dinner.

As Murray crossed into the Beverly Hills city limits, a police officer pulled him over.

“Life’s little ironies,” said Murray, an African American.

As he recounted the incident, Murray said the officer told him she made the stop because she had run a computer check on his license plates and no record came back.

Murray explained that the plates on his state-leased car are issued by the Assembly. To protect the privacy of Assembly members, he said, law enforcement computers that store registration information don’t reveal details about lawmakers.

Murray provided the officer with his registration, his license and his Assembly identification card--so there would be no question that the car was his. Then, he said, he asked why she ran his plates.

“She got very defensive and said, ‘We don’t have to have a reason,’ ” Murray said, noting there had been no violation or citation involved. “My only issue is, why did she run the plates? What caused her to be suspicious? She’s the only one who can answer that. I have my suspicions.”

Lt. Edward Kreins of the Beverly Hills Police Department said Wednesday he had not heard about the stop and could not confirm that a Beverly Hills officer had in fact stopped Murray.

“All racial complaints certainly are sensitive,” Kreins said. “But a state assemblyman making that allegation would certainly draw more attention to the matter. . . . If they do have a complaint, then make it, because I can’t investigate an allegation like this that’s third-hand.”

Murray did not get the officer’s name and has not decided whether to file a complaint with the Police Department. But he is rethinking a decision he made earlier this year, when he opted not to sponsor legislation aimed at combating a recurrent concern of African American men--that police stop them for no apparent reason.

“I’m not one of these people who believes in big police conspiracies,” Murray said. “But I’ve been stopped before. Most successful black people get stopped.”