Mistrial Declared in Brutality Case

With the jury hopelessly deadlocked, a federal judge declared a mistrial Friday in the trial of an Oxnard police officer accused of beating an unarmed burglary suspect with a metal flashlight during an arrest two years ago.

The jury remained divided 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal after three tense days of deliberations.

The lone holdout was foreperson Eunice Thompson of Cerritos, who said she firmly believed Officer Robert Flinn intentionally beat suspect Juan Lopez in the head because he ran from police.

“I believe he was enraged,” she said of the officer.

The jury acquitted Flinn on a second charge of filing a false report against Lopez--a move prosecutors argued the officer took to cover up the alleged beating.

Flinn showed little reaction as the verdicts were announced.

For three days, the 30-year-old detective had anxiously paced the hallways of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in anticipation of the jury’s findings.

Standing outside the courtroom Friday afternoon with his family and other supporters, Flinn appeared emotionally drained.

He embraced friends and relatives as he stepped out of the courtroom, and then declined to comment on either of the jury’s decisions.

Defense attorney Barry Levin told reporters that he had instructed his client not to discuss the case because federal prosecutors could still pursue another trial. He said the case has been “very stressful” for Flinn.

At the Oxnard Police Department, news of the partial acquittal was enough for Flinn’s fellow officers to declare a victory.

“I’m ecstatic,” Sgt. Doug Wiley said. “I hope he can get back to full duty now and get on with his life. Everyone here I’ve talked to is very happy for Rob.”

“Something like this can put a real pause in your life,” Senior Deputy Steve Kawaguchi added. “I think the general feeling is we’re all happy it’s over with.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gennaco said Friday it was too early to say whether his office would retry Flinn.

Levin said he hopes prosecutors will simply drop the case.

“I think they will evaluate this over the weekend and decide not to seek another prosecution,” Levin said. “If this case were to be tried 50 times over, it would have the same result.”

During the trial, Levin pushed to have the case dismissed. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied the motion, but questioned the strength of the prosecution’s case.

Outside the jury’s presence, Wilson remarked, “The prosecution has not been of the variety I’m accustomed to, especially from the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Ironically, the results of the federal case mirrored those returned after a contentious trial in state court last year.

In April 1997, a Ventura County jury found Flinn not guilty of using excessive force during the same 1996 arrest. The jury deadlocked on two other charges and the judge declared a mistrial.

Afterward, local prosecutors decided not to refile charges.

But within a year, federal prosecutors stepped in and accused Flinn of two civil rights violations--a rare move not seen since the trial of the Los Angeles police officers accused in the Rodney G. King beating case.

A seven-year veteran of the Oxnard police force, Flinn was charged with two federal offenses: violating Lopez’s constitutional right to not have police beat him, and his right to not have false charges leveled against him.

Oxnard Police Sgt. Jim Seitz said although jurors had hung on count one--leaving prosecutors room to retry the charge--Flinn’s trial days are probably over.

“I was real disappointed that Rob even had to go through the local trial,” Seitz said. “Then he had to go through the federal trial. As far as Rob and his character goes, he’s one of the finest officers in the department. He should have never been in court.”

The beating allegedly occurred after police said Lopez, 31, was caught stealing battery chargers from a neighbor’s garage on Jan. 27, 1996.

Flinn and another officer, Victor Boswell, responded to a burglary report in Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood and found Lopez at the scene. Lopez ran, and Flinn followed.

During the trial, Lopez--an unemployed heroin addict with a history of drug convictions--told the jury that he was afraid of going to jail and fled when he saw police.

But he said he quickly became tired by the foot chase and decided to stop. When he turned around to surrender, Lopez testified, the officer struck him in the face with a metal flashlight.

Lopez told jurors the officer, whom he did not identify by name, continued to beat him as many as seven times on the head, and then thrust a knee into his already bloody face.

Lopez suffered an inch-long gash above his left eye and a bump on the back of the head--injuries the defense argued were too minor to corroborate Lopez’s story.

But former Oxnard Police Officer David Hawtin testified he also saw Flinn hit Lopez with a flashlight.

Hawtin, who now works for a suburban Tennessee police department, told jurors that as he pulled up to the scene in a patrol car, he clearly saw Flinn strike Lopez on the head.

Hawtin, however, admitted he only came forward after he was mistakenly identified by Lopez as the abusive officer. And he acknowledged there had been “bad blood” between he and Flinn for years.

The defense used that admission to suggest Hawtin had blamed Flinn to save himself from an excessive-force inquiry.

During the trial, Flinn took the stand in his own defense and denied hitting Lopez on the head or filing false charges against him.

He told the jury that after Lopez stopped, the suspect turned and eyed the officer’s gun. Rather than draw the weapon and potentially exacerbate the situation, Flinn said he hit Lopez with a “judo-like” punch to the chest and a swift leg sweep took the suspect to the ground.

Flinn testified that Lopez squirmed, at one point driving the officer’s arm into the concrete. Flinn said he was injured in the struggle and for that reason filed criminal charges against Lopez.

During the trial, Flinn remained on active duty as a detective for the Oxnard Police Department, though he spent the past two weeks at the federal courthouse.

Private investigator and former Oxnard Officer Ray Centeno was present during most of the trial, helping to coordinate witnesses and lend moral support.

After two trials and two partial acquittals, Centeno said he hopes federal prosecutors decide to walk away from the case.

“I am very happy for the Flinns and for law enforcement as a whole because I think it was a just verdict,” he said. “It would be a miscarriage of justice to try this again.”

Times staff writer Tina Dirmann contributed to this story.