Mistrial Declared in Inglewood Police Case

Jurors in the Donovan Jackson police-abuse trial declared Tuesday that they could not reach a verdict on the assault charge against Jeremy Morse, the former Inglewood police officer caught on videotape last summer slamming Jackson, then 16, onto the trunk of a police car and punching him in the face.

In a case that drew national attention, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Hollingsworth Jr. announced a hung jury on the charge against Morse, 25, after the foreman of the jury said further deliberations would not change members’ minds. The jury deadlocked with seven voting Morse guilty and five voting not guilty, a split the foreman said had changed little over three days of deliberations.

The same jury found Morse’s former partner, Bijan Darvish, 26, not guilty of filing a false police report about the confrontation. The two men faced up to three years in prison if convicted on the felony charges.

Seconds after his verdict was read, Darvish shouted, “Yes!” and he and his attorney, Ronald Brower, pounded their fists on the table.

There were other outbursts in the courtroom. A woman yelled “pigs!” and walked out. “This is a joke!” shouted Najee Ali, national director of Project Islamic Hope. “There is no justice here for our people.”

Hollingsworth, angered by the commotion, ordered: “Stop that.”

Jackson, 17, sat quietly during the proceedings. “We tried. We tried. We tried,” community activist Mollie Bell said as she hugged Jackson’s mother, Felicia Chavis.

Jackson, who has a civil case pending against the city of Inglewood, Inglewood police and Los Angeles County for violating his civil rights, appeared outside the court with his lawyer afterward.

“We are disappointed in the outcome of the criminal case,” said Cameron Stewart, of Johnnie Cochran’s law firm, as Jackson stood silently by her side. “We do think this was a case of excessive force by Jeremy Morse.... We are hopeful the next time around justice will be served, and we will proceed vigorously with a civil lawsuit.”

Morse’s family expressed their own frustration.

“He’s upset,” Morse’s mother, Robin Pettit, said of her son. “He believed he was a peacemaker. He was just doing his job. I’m disappointed. We were looking for closure.”

Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said in a statement that he had not decided whether to retry the case against Morse, which he characterized as solid.

“Because of the inability of the jury to reach a decision on the case against defendant Morse, the entire proceedings will be reviewed at high levels in the office to determine if another trial is warranted,” Cooley said. His spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons, said the district attorney’s office would announce a decision by Sept. 22.

Hollingsworth told jurors they were free to talk about their decisions, but panel members avoided the crush of media. They left unnoticed through a backdoor of the Airport Courthouse and boarded a bus to a secret location. The jurors, whose names were not released by the court, did not discuss their deliberations with the attorneys involved.

The jury’s failure to agree on the guilt or innocence of Morse left the closely watched case unsettled. The seven-day trial, which had racial overtones because Morse is white and Jackson is black, was monitored by civil rights activists, community members and federal officials.

U.S. Atty. Debra W. Yang said the Justice Department’s Los Angeles office will continue to closely monitor the case. At the conclusion of the state’s prosecution, she said: “We will review the situation to determine whether federal action is appropriate.”

The racial makeup of the jury drew complaints because only one juror, a 19-year-old Los Angeles man, was black. Inglewood’s population is about half African American. There were two Asians and two Latinos on the panel. The jury pool was drawn from a wide area of the South Bay, including Inglewood, Manhattan Beach, Westchester and El Segundo.

With worries that an unpopular verdict could lead to violence, as was seen after the acquittal of police officers in the 1992 Rodney G. King beating trial, community organizers had worked for months to encourage peaceful demonstrations, regardless of the outcome. Ministers in local churches on Sunday delivered sermons urging calm.

On Tuesday, there were plenty of opinions but no trouble after the jury’s decision was announced.

At the Soul Food Kitchen at Manchester Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, owner Adolf Dulan applauded the work of civic and religious leaders.

“Most of my customers here, their attitude is: ‘Let’s keep a cool head. Let’s not have a repeat of the Rodney King blowout,’ ” he said. “I’ve seen a few hotheads, but people who have a vested interest in the community want to keep it safe.”

As a precaution, the Los Angeles Police Department was placed on tactical alert Tuesday, doubling the number of officers on patrol by keeping the morning shift on duty through the afternoon. The alert was canceled by 6 p.m.

“It’s quiet,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Gary Brennan.

The confrontation between Jackson and several officers at the Thrifty gasoline station on Century Boulevard took place on the afternoon of July 6, 2002. Jackson’s father was being questioned by police for having an expired registration tag when his teenage son returned from the gas station’s mini-mart with a bag of chips.

Jackson was ordered into the back of a police car but the teenager refused. A struggle followed, and Jackson was wrestled to the ground by officers and handcuffed. Then Morse, with an amateur cameraman recording some of the confrontation from a nearby hotel, hoisted Jackson and threw him atop a police car. Morse struck the teenager across the face with his closed fist.

After the videotape was aired on local TV news, protesters marched on Inglewood’s City Hall. The U.S. Justice Department sent a civil rights investigative team. Within two weeks, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury returned indictments against Morse and Darvish.

During the trial, Deputy Dist. Attys. Max Huntsman and Michael Pettersen based their case against the officers on three seconds of video that shows Morse slamming Jackson on the trunk of a police cruiser. Prosecutors said Jackson appeared lifeless, dangling like a rag doll, which made Morse’s response an excessive use of force.

Defense attorneys argued that the slam culminated a fierce and long struggle, during which Jackson grabbed, kicked and punched at the officers. Morse, having suffered neck and ear injuries, manhandled Jackson because the teenager was passively resisting by going limp, attorneys said. The teenager, they argued, later grabbed Morse’s testicles, prompting the punch and proving Morse had not used enough force. Jackson suffered minor injuries.

When Jackson took the witness stand, he gave confused and at times conflicting testimony. But the 17-year-old stuck to his original story: That he was unconscious and didn’t remember the slam or the punch to his face. Prosecutors said Jackson’s testimony bolstered their argument that the teenager was not resisting.

The prosecution’s case took a sudden turn when one of their own use-of-force experts, Charles “Sid” Heal, said he would not have recommended filing criminal charges against Morse.

Heal, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department commander, said Morse’s actions were excessive, but he only should have been disciplined.

Legal experts questioned why prosecutors used an expert witness who undermined their case. During closing arguments, prosecutors, however, tried to blunt the damage by pointing out that Heal’s expertise was in use of force, not criminal law.

During deliberations, jurors requested transcripts of Heal’s testimony, about two hours long, to be read back. They also asked for a clarification on the definition of force.

Gibbons, the district attorney’s spokeswoman, defended the use of Heal, saying he confirmed that Morse’s action was unnecessary and unreasonable. Gibbons said testimony from other use-of-force experts backed up that judgment.

“The chief of police -- it’s his own force -- said it was unnecessary and unreasonable,” said Gibbons, referring to testimony by Inglewood Police Chief Ronald Banks, who relieved Morse of duty shortly after the incident and later fired the three-year veteran.

Morse was charged with felony assault under the color of authority, in essence, abusing his powers as a police officer by using excessive force.

After the jury was dismissed, the defendants’ attorneys left the courthouse flanked by a dozen sheriff’s deputies. Neither defendant appeared with his attorney. About 30 community members clustered outside with 40 reporters and TV cameramen.

As soon as the attorneys spoke, members of the audience began to heckle. Someone shouted, “Professional liar!” as John Barnett, Morse’s attorney, addressed reporters.

“My client is disappointed, as am I, that a verdict was not reached,” said Barnett. He will ask the court to dismiss the case and said that Morse would not plead to lesser charges.

“It’s unlikely any jury will convict him,” he said. “There will be no new evidence and it would be oppressive for him to do a second trial.”

Brower, the attorney for Darvish, said his client and family were relieved. Darvish, who is still an Inglewood officer, was accused of covering up Morse’s actions. Brower said that Darvish did not see Morse slam Jackson on the car, and therefore did not include it in the report.

“He’s a little discouraged because four officers out there wrote reports who were on the scene,” Brower said. “His was by far the most complete in detail and what it revealed about force that was used.... Yet, he’s the only one who got prosecuted.”

During closing arguments, Brower noted that the prosecution had presented no witnesses against Darvish.

“We knew he was innocent from the beginning,” said Bobby Darvish, Bijan’s older brother. “He always wanted to be a cop, and he can’t wait to be back on the streets.”

Gibbons said Tuesday that prosecutors believed they had made a strong case against Darvish.

“We felt it was very clear in viewing the tape and the police report that Officer Morse did one thing and Officer Darvish did another -- and that’s falsifying a report,” she said. “The jury apparently saw something different, but that’s how we saw it.”

The trial was difficult for Jackson and his family, Stewart said.

” He was beat up, basically, by a number of police officers and sheriff’s deputies, including Jeremy Morse and Bijan Darvish,” she said. “So it’s very difficult ... to have gone through this process and to feel in the end, justice was not served.”

Jackson’s family, who has said an auditory disorder impedes Jackson’s ability to communicate and may have slowed his response to police commands, said Tuesday that they were not surprised by the trial’s outcome. “No, uh-uh,” said Nancy Goins of Los Angeles, Donovan’s aunt, with a deep sigh. “Not surprised.”

She said her nephew had been back to his routine in recent days, after months of dodging the media once the videotape made national news.

“He’s been kind of staying close to home since the trial,” Goins said.

Jackson wanted to get a summer job, she said, but “he’s become a little leery again” about drawing unwanted attention.

In Inglewood, many residents said they were prepared to be disappointed by the outcome of the trial. At the same time, they expressed disbelief that neither defendant was found guilty.

“It should be just about fairness, but today wasn’t about fairness,” said Nathalie Woods, 41. “They say we have laws and rules, but how come it’s not for everyone? I know the police are under a lot of pressure, but right is right and wrong is wrong.”

At the Market Street Gumbo Shack, owner Lee Turner, 28, had his staff turn all the TVs to the local news for the verdict. When the decisions were broadcast, the reaction among the staff and patrons having a late lunch was calm, unsurprised and bitter.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Turner said in disgust.

Andre Taylor, 37, a postal worker from Los Angeles, shook his head as the tape of Morse striking Jackson was broadcast yet again.

“Did they teach you how to do that at the Police Academy -- punch somebody in the jaw?” Taylor asked.

At his billiards hall near La Brea Avenue and Florence Boulevard, Braziliano Rodriguez, 56, nursed a beer at the bar and watched theTV news.

“It’s not fair. I think he’s guilty,” Rodriguez said after the decision. “I was surprised. I feel a little bad..... He was handcuffed and didn’t deserve to be beaten. I have respect for the police, but the police should have respect for the people.”

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Times staff writers Daren Briscoe, Jose Cardenas, Jia-Rui Chong, Richard Fausset, Li Fellers, Megan Garvey, Carla Hall, Akilah Johnson, Jean Merl, Monte Morin, Nicholas Riccardi, David Rosenzweig, Joel Rubin and Joy Woodson contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

‘The riots didn’t really solve nothing. Why riot? They say they’re not going to negotiate with terrorists. Well, they’re not going to negotiate with us just because we’re rioting.’

Levon Byrd, 16, who was in Inglewood looking for a piercing shop *

‘I think the community needs to be getting behind the police

a little more.’

Rodney Phillips, owner of Woody’s Bar-B-Que

*

Donovan Jackson ‘probably wasn’t as cooperative as he could have been, but I feel there’s nothing he could have done to make them do that. Bottom line -- I don’t think he deserved it.’

Mario Cisneros, 17, Inglewood High School quarterback

*

‘They’re the law and they’re supposed to set an example. When

we see them acting like barbarians, what are we supposed to take away from that?’

Kerri Murphy, 21, Gumbo Shack employee

*

‘I don’t know where they get the idea that we’re going to tear things up. There’s no way in hell I’m going to burn down the barbershop that I get my hair cut at.’

Dejuan Wallace, 26, TGI Friday’s employee

*

This is like Rodney King, Part 2. I mean, they got the videotape.’

Eric Gilbert, 38, trash collector

*

‘I am not surprised. This is the history. I would have been shocked if there had been a conviction.’

Tony Muhammad, Nation of Islam minister

*

‘I feel that the police have the right to be strong if someone gets out of hand. Otherwise the police will be afraid to do anything, and we have to have the police. That’s the way it should be.’

Ramon Ybarra, owner of Ray’s Barbershop