D.A., FBI to Investigate Long Beach Police Case

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the FBI are investigating a videotaped incident in which a white Long Beach police officer appeared to shove a black man’s face into a plate glass window after a routine traffic stop.

The Long Beach City Council voted Tuesday to ask the district attorney’s office to launch an independent investigation of the Saturday night incident, which was secretly recorded by an NBC television crew.

But Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay said the office was already looking into the case at the request of the Long Beach police chief.

“We agreed to review the matter to determine whether a criminal investigation is appropriate,” Livesay said, adding that his office hopes to decide by Friday whether a full-fledged investigation is merited. If such an inquiry reveals that brutality was involved, either misdemeanor or felony charges could be filed against the officer, he said.

The FBI has also been called in to determine whether the civil rights of the man who was arrested--Don Jackson, a sergeant on administrative leave from the Hawthorne Police Department--were violated during his altercation with two Long Beach officers on Pacific Coast Highway, spokesman Fred Reagan said. He refused to say who had requested the federal investigation.

“We’ve had an allegation of a civil rights violation and we opened a ticket on it this morning,” he said.

Jackson and Jeff Hill, an off-duty federal corrections officer, donned dirty old clothes and drove into Long Beach in a rented 12-year-old sedan Saturday night as the television crew followed behind in a van. The two men said they wanted to demonstrate a long-standing problem of abuse of minority group members by Long Beach police officers.

Full Tape Withheld

While edited portions of the tape have been broadcast, Long Beach officials have said they need to see everything filmed by the NBC crew to move ahead with their own investigation of the incident. NBC officials have declined to release the full tape, saying that it would violate company policy to release unedited footage.

A Long Beach assistant city attorney said his office is considering legal action to obtain the tapes.

Although Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell told NBC’s “Today Show” on Tuesday morning that the two police officers had been suspended, Police Chief Lawrence L. Binkley said that the officers, Mark Dickey and Mark Ramsey, will remain on duty at this stage of the investigation. They have, however, been reassigned from patrol duty to the detective bureau, he said.

Kell admitted later Tuesday that he was in error in his “Today Show” comments, but said he would favor firing the officers if it is proved that they used brutal tactics in dealing with Jackson.

Called ‘Unfortunate’

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the mayor called the incident “an unfortunate set of circumstances. We will not tolerate this. . . . We need to find out what happened here and make sure it never happens again.”

An investigation by the district attorney will add credibility to the city’s own consideration of the brutality allegations, Kell said.

It is not unusual for the district attorney to look into allegations of police brutality, Livesay said, estimating that the office takes on four to six such cases a year.

In determining whether a police officer has used excessive force, prosecutors have to decide whether the officer acted “without lawful necessity” in assaulting or beating a suspect. He declined to detail what would constitute unnecessary force, saying that it would be a “judgement call” by prosecutors based on the actions and statements of the police officers and suspects, and the injuries suffered.

Attorney Michael Hannon, who is representing the two officers, said Tuesday that he will contest any allegations of brutality. He said the officers were “set up” by black activists intent on creating a scene with police.

Police Have No Comment

In a statement released a day after the incident, Long Beach police said that Jackson’s and Hill’s sedan was pulled over for weaving across the center line of the highway. They denied that Jackson’s head was shoved through the window, saying that his elbow smashed the glass. On Monday, however, department officials stopped releasing that statement and said they would have no comment pending the outcome of their internal investigation.

A spokesman for the Police Misconduct Lawyer Referral Service, a nonprofit group that investigates citizen complaints against law enforcement agencies, said the televised tape makes it clear that Dickey pushed Jackson’s head and right arm through the window. Spokesman David Lynn maintained that Hill, the driver of the car, was not violating any traffic laws when he was stopped.

The group also complained that Dickey also used a string of obscenities in his conversation with Jackson, who was booked for suspicion of using offensive language, challenging an officer to fight and obstructing arrest. He was released on his own recognizance pending a Jan. 25 court appearance.

Clarence Smith, the only black member of the Long Beach City Council, said he found the tape “shocking.” But other city officials argued that the television footage was not necessarily conclusive because it showed the altercation from only one angle and showed Jackson and Dickey only from the waist up.

“It’s real hard to tell what’s happening below the waist,” said Councilman Evan Anderson Braude, maintaining that it is vital that NBC release the rest of its videotapes.

Concedes Error by Officer

Attorney Hannon conceded that Dickey was wrong to spice his orders to Jackson with obscenities, but he said the cursing was evidence of discourtesy, rather than racism.

He said the two officers saw the car weave within the traffic lane and wanted to check the driver for drunkenness. Although the two men in the car were black, driving an old car and dressed in shabby clothes, they were not stopped for those reasons, the lawyer said, adding that they were in a section of the city where their appearance was not unusual.

“Obviously, they are not telling the truth when they say they did nothing to bring attention to themselves,” Hannon said of Jackson and Hill.

He said the two police officers become concerned for their safety when Jackson suspiciously exited the car as soon as it stopped, then immediately started arguing when Dickey ordered him to submit to a search for weapons.

‘Proper Police Tactics’

“The officer, using proper police tactics, pushed him up (against) the side of a building and unfortunately, the window broke,” Hannon said. “I’m sure neither Mr. Jackson nor the officer wanted the window to break, because it was dangerous.”

He said Jackson had an eye for the camera when he screamed as Dickey moved him over to the police cruiser for arrest.

He said Dickey, who has been on the police force for four years, had one earlier complaint about his conduct, which was investigated by the department and determined to be unfounded.