Chief Says Officers Made No Error in Handcuffing Black Priest at Church

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks on Wednesday said his officers did not err last month when they handcuffed a black Episcopal priest in his vestments.

Early in January, police were called after a dispute involving four African American men at a hamburger stand across the street from St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Canoga Park. The argument resulted in an armed confrontation. Two of the men fled and climbed a fence around the churchyard. The priest was confronting one of them when police arrived.

A day after the police action, Parks said, the officers’ captain went to the clergyman and his parish board to explain why the officers acted as they did, and to “apologize for any embarrassment or ill-feeling that may have been created by [their] conduct.”

Lee Carter, the captain of the LAPD’s West Valley Division, also offered to “speak to the congregation as a whole” and extended a similar “explanation and apology,” Parks said. That offer, said the chief, “was declined.”

The chief flatly contradicted the suggestion by the Rev. Ronald D. Culmer and others that race played a role in his detention. Among other things, Parks said, the officers involved were not, as Culmer alleged in The Times on Wednesday, three whites and one Asian. Rather, the chief said they were a Latino, a Latina, an Asian American and a Native American.

“This was a police incident, not a racial incident,” Parks said emphatically.

He said he particularly resents what he called “the further stereotyping of our white officers as universally insensitive. Obviously, they are not--anymore than all our minority officers are as sensitive as we would like them to be.”

As Parks described the incident, “Our officers were responding to a 415, which means a dispute involving a firearm. When they arrived, they had no idea of the nature of that dispute. For all they knew, it might have involved someone at the church.”

The officers, Parks said, had every reason to be concerned that men they presumed were armed were in a position to take hostages at the church, its preschool or its elementary school.

“Tactically, when you are chasing a suspect with a gun, you hold people in place and then release them when you have established their identity,” Parks added. “That’s what our officers did. They were pursuing two African American suspects. Lots of people in suits commit dangerous crimes. We hold them too.”

At another point during an interview in Mayor Richard Riordan’s City Hall office, Parks--who was accompanied by members of his command staff--reiterated that “the police did not make a mistake, but their captain did explain and apologize for any embarrassment or misperception that may have been created by their pursuit of their duties. Remember, all this happened in a matter of seconds, within a few feet of a school filled with children.”

Parks said he planned to speak with Culmer on Wednesday evening and to meet with the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles today. He also said representatives of the Episcopal Diocese have been invited to participate in the department’s first citywide police-clergy forum, March 10. According to Parks, Culmer’s parish has failed to respond to past invitations to take part in similar Valleywide dialogues.

Church officials this week gave a different version of the captain’s meeting with them, which they said occurred five days after the Jan. 7 incident.

“The word ‘apology’ was glaringly missing,” said Barbara Lifter, clerk of the vestry, or board of directors, of the church.

Saying it was “extremely upset and angry” over the confrontation, the vestry also fired off a letter to Deputy Chief Michael Bostic--head of the Valley Bureau--again demanding an apology. Vestry members said they heard nothing in the next four weeks, leading to Tuesday’s request by Borsch for a meeting with Parks to achieve “reconciliation.”

Bob Williams, communications director for the diocese, said, “The parish representatives are unanimous in their opinion that no apology has been extended to the congregation.” Additionally, they said Culmer stands by his description of the officers as three Caucasians and one Asian American.

Meanwhile, several top black church leaders said they would not be surprised if race had a bearing on Culmer’s treatment.

“For the African American community, though we don’t like it and we jump up and complain about it, it happens rather frequently,” said the Rev. Zedar Broadous, president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s San Fernando Valley branch. “That’s a hard reality.”

Others, however, cautioned against rushing to judgment.

“In the line of fire, your perceptions are not the same as they would normally be,” said the Rev. Dudley Chatman of Greater Community Missionary Baptist Church in Pacoima. Forgiveness and “understanding that we’re all human” should precede casting blame, he added.

Parks said an internal affairs inquiry was launched the day of the incident and is still in progress.

According to Culmer’s account of the incident, he had just finished celebrating a Thursday Eucharist with a few parishioners. When he stepped outside the church, he saw two black men jump a wrought iron fence onto the church grounds, which also contain a preschool and elementary school.

One man stopped and the other kept fleeing.

Culmer instructed a nearby preschool teacher to lock her classroom door. Then he confronted the man near the school building. The two had just begun to speak when four officers arrived with shotgun and handguns drawn, the priest said.

Two of the officers approached Culmer, who was in liturgical vestments, from behind, he said.

The two officers ordered Culmer to put his hands up, he said. According to Parks, “he did not follow directions; he moved away.” Culmer said he thought the officers were speaking to the other man and did not immediately comply. The officers repeated their order, then told Culmer to drop to his knees, he said. After he did so, he was handcuffed.

The duration of his detention is one of the areas being investigated by the LAPD, Parks said. According to the chief, Culmer initially told police that he was handcuffed for a minute or so, but later told internal affairs investigators that he was restrained for considerably longer. This week, Culmer set the time at two minutes.

Williams, the diocese spokesman, said Culmer gave police a taped statement Tuesday. “It was the [police] getting Ron’s side of the story,” Williams said.

He also said he was still trying to find a person who saw the entire incident between Culmer and police. “What we’re finding is that they seem to get bits and pieces of it,” he said.

That appeared to differ from Culmer’s account, published Wednesday in The Times, that parishioners and the church secretary protested as he was handcuffed.

Efforts to reach the secretary were unsuccessful Wednesday.

School parents stood by Culmer Wednesday. “Rev. Ron,” as he is called by most children, is a beloved figure on school grounds, parents said.

“I was shocked when I heard what happened,” said Lori Elrick, the former head of the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal School, which had an enrollment of 188 last year. “He is the most mild-mannered and sweetest man.”

Other parents, while objecting to the treatment Culmer experienced, said they were hesitant to blame police for their actions.

“I’m sure everything happened so quickly, [police] didn’t have time to think it through,” said Wendy Byrnes, head of the school’s governing body. “The police have to follow a certain procedure. I don’t know if they could have done anything differently.”

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Times staff writers Scott Glover and Michael Luo contributed to this story.