2nd Trial Begins for Ex-Inglewood Officer

Jeremy Morse hauled a handcuffed, limp teenager off the ground and threw him onto the trunk of a patrol car in a show of force that was excessive and unnecessary, prosecutors said Wednesday as they laid out their case against the former Inglewood police officer.

But defense attorney John Barnett told jurors that Morse, caught on videotape by an amateur cameraman, used reasonable force to restrain Donovan Jackson as he violently resisted officers at a gas station in July 2002. Morse employed a technique called “wedging” that officers are trained to use when confronted with resistance, Barnett said.

The opening statements suggest that the second trial of Morse is likely to be similar to the first, which ended in a mistrial six months ago. They also highlighted the core issue of the case -- whether Morse’s conduct, shown in part on the widely circulated videotape, was justified.

The one significant change, which could be critical to the case, is that prosecutors do not plan to call Sheriff’s Cmdr. Charles Heal, who testified in the first trial that Morse’s actions were excessive but warranted only discipline and not criminal charges.

Jurors who deadlocked seven to five for guilt said Heal’s testimony hurt the prosecution. For the retrial, prosecutors will call Joseph Callanan of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who is expected to testify that Morse used unnecessary force.

Morse, 26, could receive up to three years in prison if convicted of assault under the color of authority.

Jackson, 18, the first prosecution witness, testified Wednesday that police officers beat him, struck him with a flashlight and choked him until he blacked out. Speaking softly and in choppy sentences, Jackson said he did what the officers told him to do and that he didn’t try to scratch, hit or kick any officers during the confrontation, which left him with a swollen cheek and a bloody mouth.

He testified that he came out of the gas station and saw two deputies talking to his father. One of the deputies told him to take his hand out of his pocket and sat him down in the patrol car.

Then, he testified, “I saw four or five officers rushing toward me.” When he got scared and stood up, one of the officers “socked me in the jaw” and took him to the ground, he said.

“Then I passed out,” Jackson told jurors, saying that the next thing he remembered was walking to a police car. After watching the videotape, Jackson again said he couldn’t remember being hit or slammed onto the patrol car by Morse.

On cross-examination, Barnett pointed out Jackson’s 2002 testimony to a grand jury that he was awake when Morse slammed him onto the trunk. Barnett cited other inconsistencies in Jackson’s testimony and questioned his claim that he didn’t do anything to prompt officers to run toward him or put him on the ground.

Contradicting Jackson was Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Lopez, who told jurors the confrontation began after he stopped to investigate expired registration tags on the car of Jackson’s father, Coby Chavis Jr.

Jackson came out of the station’s snack shop, failed to respond to orders and resisted officers, according to Lopez. He said Jackson also stared at him intently, as if he wanted to fight. When Lopez told him to sit in the car, the teenager lunged at him, the deputy said. He continued to struggle after being put on the ground, Lopez said.

“He was lunging, kicking and resisting,” the deputy testified.

Inglewood Police Officer Willie Crook testified that Jackson jumped out of the patrol car with his fists clenched. Crook said Jackson did not punch or kick officers, but he did try to avoid being handcuffed. Once the cuffs were on, Crook said, Jackson stopped moving around.

Jackson has a sensory disorder that affects how he responds and causes him to misperceive events around him, prosecutors said.

The confrontation on July 6, 2002, attracted national attention and prompted civil rights activists to protest alleged police brutality and storm Inglewood City Hall. Though the crowds of protesters are gone, several community members attended the first day of the retrial. “It sends a message we haven’t lost our will to continue to see that justice will be served,” said community activist Najee Ali.

Several of Jackson’s relatives also came to the courthouse Wednesday. An aunt, Loretta Chavis, said she thinks a jury should find Morse guilty. She said her nephew is nervous and still feels intimidated by Morse.

“He’s my nephew and I want to support him,” she said.

The jury is made up of seven women and five men. All but two of the jurors and the two alternates had heard about the case and many had seen the videotape, according to jury questionnaires.

One juror, a 52-year-old El Segundo man, wrote on the questionnaire that “he didn’t like to see that sort of thing,” and that the “kid looked pretty defenseless.”

A 34-year-old juror from Los Angeles wrote that the tape was “unnerving and disturbing and looks brutal.” But she also said she didn’t know what prompted the controversy and that she had “tremendous respect” for officers who “go out and protect the city.”

Another juror, a Playa del Rey woman, wrote that she had seen the incident on television but called it “just another news story.” She wrote, “We have lots in Los Angeles.”

Morse’s partner, Bijan Darvish, who was in the courtroom on Wednesday, was acquitted in the first trial of charges that he wrote a false police report about the incident.

Testimony in the trial, expected to last less than a week, will resume before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Hollingsworth today.