Flinn Denies Brutality Allegation

Responding to charges of police brutality, Oxnard Officer Robert Flinn took the witness stand in his own defense Thursday and told a jury that he never struck a burglary suspect over the head with a metal flashlight.

“No sir, I did not,” Flinn testified in response to his lawyer’s question. Flinn further denied filing a false battery report against the unarmed suspect--a move prosecutors say Flinn took to conceal a brutal and unjustified beating.

Flinn, a seven-year veteran of the force, is facing federal civil rights violations after being acquitted on two police brutality charges in state court last year. The jury deadlocked on two additional charges in that case.

On Thursday, Flinn’s defense team called its first witnesses--including police officers, medical technicians and Oxnard residents--whose testimony contradicted statements made by two key government witnesses earlier this week.

And then late in the day, Flinn took the stand.

The 30-year-old officer, who did not testify during the state trial, appeared confident and cool as he walked across the spacious courtroom of U.S. District Judge Steven V. Wilson. Dressed in a dark suit, Flinn took his seat and leaned into the microphone with his eyes set on defense attorney Barry Levin.

He then began to tell his story:

On Jan. 27, 1996, Flinn said he and another officer, Victor Boswell, responded to a report of a residential burglary. He said when they arrived, they saw a man holding an armload of stolen property.

The man--Lopez--immediately saw the two officers, dropped the goods and ran, Flinn said.

“I told him to stop,” Flinn testified, turning in his seat to make eye contact with the jurors. “I yelled, ‘Stop! Police!’ ”

But Lopez did not stop, he said. Lopez scaled a 6-foot wall and fled. Holding his flashlight in his left hand, Flinn said, he pursued the man.

“I always carry my flashlight,” Flinn said.

During the chase, Flinn said Lopez jumped into a family’s backyard and slammed into a 3-year-old girl. The officer said he stopped briefly to make sure she was uninjured and then continued on.

Flinn’s testimony was cut off at that point because of the late hour, and the jury was sent home. Flinn is scheduled to resume the witness stand this morning.

Before Flinn testified, Levin called eight witnesses to contradict evidence presented by the prosecution.

Two key government witnesses--Lopez and former Oxnard Police Officer David Hawtin--testified that Flinn struck Lopez in the face with the officer’s department-issued flashlight and continued to brutalize Lopez by striking him after he had fallen to the ground.

Specifically, Lopez, 31, told jurors the officer beat him over the head with the metal flashlight at least four more times, then kicked him in the face with his knee.

But the emergency-room doctor who treated Lopez at St. John’s Regional Medical Center said Thursday that Lopez had only three injuries from the alleged attack: a one-inch cut above the left eye, abrasions on the right side of his face, and a golf ball-size bump on the head.

Dr. Richard Wagner told the jury that X-rays were taken, but said they revealed no skull fractures or serious head trauma. He said such injuries typically would be seen in person clubbed by a heavy, blunt object such as a flashlight.

“[Lopez’s] injuries did not seem to corroborate his explanation of the events,” Wagner testified.

The defense maintains Lopez was injured when Flinn knocked him to the ground during the arrest. Wagner told the jury that Lopez’s wounds were consistent with a hard fall.

The doctor’s statements conflict with opinions offered by the prosecution’s medical expert, Dr. Harry Smith, who testified Wednesday. Smith, who specializes in the causes of head injuries, told the jury that Lopez’s wounds appeared to be caused by a blow to the head, and could not have been the result of a fall.

“This type of laceration, which is well defined, is caused by an object,” Smith said, likening it to the type of injury commonly seen in boxing matches.

In other testimony Thursday, Officer Boswell corroborated Flinn’s version of the arrest. He told the jury he never saw Flinn strike Lopez with a flashlight. He also said Lopez had resisted arrest.