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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (3968)	7/29/2003 7:17:14 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793586

Good thing this decision came down on a Tuesday instead of a Friday. Jury Deadlocked in California Videotaped Beating Case By NICK MADIGAN - NEW YORK TIMES EL SEGUNDO, Calif., July 29 - A mistrial was declared in the case of an Inglewood police officer who was videotaped in the beating a 16-year-old, after a jury told Judge William Hollingsworth of Superior Court that it was deadlocked. The jurors said they were split 7 to 5, with 7 favoring a conviction of Officer Jeremy Morse on charges of assaulting the teenager and 5 voting to acquit him. The same jury said that Officer Morse's former partner, Bijan Darvish, was not guilty of filing a false police report, when he filed a report that did not mention the incident. As reporters listened to the verdict over a video feed from the Airport Branch Courthouse, one person in the courtroom was clearly audible saying, "There's no justice here." Outside the court, Morris Griffin, 48, an Inglewood resident for 26 years, said: "I'm very upset about that. It tells me that we have a bunch of jury cop lovers who refuse to observe the video tape. It's ridiculous, it's totally ridiculous." Mr. Morris added, "What they're telling us is that what we saw on the video tape, they didn't actually see." And he called the not guilty verdict for Officer Darvish "an insult to our intelligence." During the trial, which lasted just over a week, defense lawyers said that Donovan Jackson had grabbed Officer Morse's testicles and that he had resisted arrest, although the videotape that brought the case into millions of people's homes showed the 136-pound Mr. Jackson limp and motionless as he was being heaved into the air and smacked onto the trunk of a patrol car. A punch to the face followed as another police officer helped Officer Morse hold the young man down. Mr. Jackson testified that he had passed out while being choked and beaten with a flashlight and batons, and that he recalled grabbing only the officer's shirt. Mr. Jackson's family has filed a civil suit against the city of Inglewood, four of its officers, Los Angeles County and three sheriff's deputies. The incident on July 6, 2002, at an Inglewood gas station led to an internal affairs investigation of several police officers and resulted in the firing of Officer Morse, a three-year veteran of the force. He was charged with assault under the color of authority. Officer Darvish was charged with filing a false report. Each could have been sentenced to up to three years in prison if found guilty. The beating of Mr. Jackson raised anew the issue of excessive force by police officers, a particularly potent topic in the Los Angeles area, which was devastated by riots in 1992 that followed the acquittal of four officers who had been accused of beating the motorist Rodney King. Today, in an effort to prevent such disturbances, dozens of volunteers who had spent months in conflict-mediation training walked around Inglewood neighborhoods advocating calm and inviting residents to a prayer vigil at City Hall. "We're also sending out e-mails and making calls to hundreds of people who have shown interest, calling on them to promote peace after the verdict," Steve Goldsmith, director of the Centinela Valley Juvenile Diversion Project, said this morning by phone. In the trial, when Mr. Jackson, now 17 years old, took the witness stand, he said he had become frightened when he saw the officers questioning his father, Coby Chavis, whose car had an expired license plate. He said the officers "started rushing me and started hitting me." He could not explain why they might have done so, and did not remember being slammed onto the car or being punched in the face, saying he was no longer awake when that happened. Mr. Jackson testified that he then regained consciousness and heard Officer Morse threatening to break his nose. "He said it's his world," Mr. Jackson said in the courtroom near Los Angeles International Airport. Family members and supporters have attended the trial since it began. nytimes.com