The Jury Didn’t Believe 2 Officers’ Version of Beating

U.S. Customs Agent Alonzo Rivera has stared danger in the face many times in his life. As a Marine in Vietnam, Rivera fought in the hill battles along the DMZ against the North Vietnamese Army in 1967 and 1968, earning three Purple Hearts.

Working as a Customs agent for the past 18 years, Rivera has participated in numerous investigations, nabbing dangerous drug traffickers and genteel but corrupt white-collar criminals alike. Although he is based in San Diego, the investigations have taken Rivera throughout the United States.

The burly Rivera, 49, never dreamed he would one day end up in a confrontation with other cops and accuse some of his brethren of brutality and racism.

But that is what happened outside a VFW Hall in Logan Heights on March 30, 1990, when a late-night altercation between an off-duty Rivera and two San Diego police officers left him with a broken right hand and ruptured tendons that Rivera fears may force a premature end to his law enforcement career.

Although he was charged with assaulting two officers and resisting arrest, Rivera and his attorney, William McGuigan, angrily denied that he punched the officers or resisted arrest.

Rivera was eventually convicted on a misdemeanor count of assaulting his fiancee, an incident which preceded his altercation with the officers, Charles R. Fox, 45, and Jeffrey G. Gross, 28. A judge ordered him to undergo counseling for one year and to pay $550 in court costs and a fine.

However, a Municipal Court jury cleared him of charges that he assaulted the officers who arrested him.

After his arrest, Customs officials notified Rivera of their intent to fire him. He appealed the recommendation for dismissal. His superiors subsequently changed their recommendation to a two-month suspension without pay. That recommendation was then pared to a two-week suspension, then a three-day suspension and finally to nothing at all.

As the criminal case went to court, Customs officials decided to await the outcome of the trial before deciding on disciplinary action against Rivera. When he was cleared of the assault charges against the police, Customs officials decided against taking any disciplinary action. Rivera is currently in Washington, working on an investigation.

Several jurors interviewed by The Times said they did not believe the officers’ testimony, and added that 11 of the 12 jurors believed that police used excessive force when they arrested Rivera.

Jurors said they were persuaded by the testimony of Ray Morrell, a security guard at the VFW Hall who helped police arrest Rivera. In a telephone interview from his Whittier home, Morrell said that Fox and Gross “beat on that man when they didn’t have to.”

Rivera, who is still undergoing treatment for his injuries more than a year after the incident, said he decided to tell his story in the wake of the controversy surrounding the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. He is still embittered by the officers’ testimony at his trial, Rivera said.

Last year, the San Diego City Council rejected a claim filed by Rivera’s attorney. The attorney is currently in the process of preparing a lawsuit against the Police Department and the officers.

Fox and Gross were cleared last month of any wrongdoing by the Police Department following an internal investigation.

The incident began when the officers were called to investigate a minor automobile accident near the VFW Hall involving Rivera’s girlfriend, Grisela Trevino. After an argument with Rivera, Trevino, 27, hit a parked car when she attempted to drive away.

Both Rivera, who was off duty at the time, and Trevino had been drinking with friends inside the VFW post located in the 2100 block of Logan Avenue. A friend of Rivera had summoned him outside, to inspect the damage done by Trevino to both cars. The woman, who declined to comment, was eventually convicted of reckless driving.

When Fox and Gross arrived, they saw Rivera hit Trevino, police said. According to a police report of the incident, the officers attempted to intercede, but Rivera “turned and began punching the officers even though they were in full uniform and had stated that they were the police.”

Rivera’s assault on Trevino led to a misdemeanor conviction on what police labeled a case of domestic violence. He was also charged with four counts of assault and battery on Fox and Gross and one count of resisting arrest, but he was cleared of those.

According to court records, the jurors acquitted him on two counts of battery on the officers and deadlocked 11 to 1 for acquittal on two counts of assaulting the officers and one count of resisting arrest. The prosecutor chose to drop the three counts on which the jurors were deadlocked, rather than try Rivera again.

Rivera was able to beat the charges involving the officers because he had no previous record and could afford to pursue his day in court, McGuigan said.

“But what about other minorities who cannot afford legal counseling. It’s hopeless for those people to do anything about police brutality. They don’t have a chance. I’m sure that dozens of cases of excessive force go unpublicized because people don’t have the means or wherewithal to go after the police in court,” McGuigan said.

“They (police) had to lie in their report in order to justify the excessive force that they used,” said Rivera, who testified in court that the officers lied. “There was no reason for it. I was wrong for hitting (Trevino) and I was rightly convicted for that, but the other charges against me were bogus.”

In recent telephone interviews, several jurors said they didn’t believe the testimony of Fox and Gross. Two jurors said they are still troubled by the realization that police officers can be unbelievable witnesses.

“Honestly, the officers were not too credible,” said juror Wayne Koser. “We felt that the police shouldn’t have done what they did. They beat him. The way they went at it, it didn’t make sense. We found that they used excessive force.”

Another juror said the jury found that the testimony of Fox and Gross conflicted with each other. Oscar Yorba said “it didn’t seem like the officers had the story straight.” The defense received an unexpected boost from Morrell’s testimony, who was called as a prosecution witness, Yorba said.

Fox’s report said that Morrell helped police subdue Rivera and it was Morrell who handcuffed him. However, Morrell, 64, told The Times that he was bothered by the officers’ conduct in arresting Rivera.

“They were using too much force on Rivera. The officers said that he assaulted them, but they were the ones doing the beating, using their nightsticks and fists. He was taken down and didn’t have a chance to fight back. He couldn’t hit back,” said Morrell. “The officers were 100% wrong. I only came out with the truth (at the trial).”

“The testimony of the security guard and Rivera was the same, but the two officers told conflicting stories,” Yorba said. “One of them said that Rivera was punching him with his right hand swinging over his shoulder. The two officers were behind Rivera, restraining him, but when you looked at Rivera’s height and the height of the two officers, it didn’t seem possible.”

According to juror Yorba, jurors believed that Fox and Gross used excessive force because they responded to the call in a high-crime area and acted out of fear.

“One of the officers said that Logan Heights is known as a dangerous area and a place where people carry weapons all the time. That told me that he was already going in scared. They were supposed to be investigating an auto accident, but they went in expecting something else. They were using Logan Heights as an excuse for what they did to Rivera,” Yorba said.

Augusto Arquilla, who also sat on the jury, said “the entire case was a mess,” adding that the officers’ testimony was “a puzzle that didn’t fit.”

Municipal Judge Robert Coates, who presided at the trial, declined to comment, because Rivera may file a civil lawsuit.

Fox and Gross did not return phone calls. Police Cmdr. Larry Gore said he was not familiar with the case, but said he was disturbed by jurors comments that they didn’t believe the officers’ testimony.

“Nobody likes to think that a police officer would be untruthful in any situation . . . . One of the highest principles of integrity that we instill in the minds of all officers is the need to be truthful at all times. When it is brought to my attention that an officer was less than truthful, he is subject to disciplinary action,” Gore said.

Rivera in an interview and in his court testimony said that he suffered most of his injuries during his arrest in front of the VFW Hall. Fox and Gross threw him to the pavement, face down, and the officers began hitting and kicking him, Rivera said.

According to Fox’s report, he grabbed Rivera’s right hand in a “pain compliance hold” and pulled it back, until the officer “felt his finger give way.” The report also mentioned that Fox scraped his forehead, twisted an ankle and tore his uniform shirt during the scuffle.

At that point, the officers did not know that Rivera was a federal agent, and Rivera said that he was not afforded an opportunity to identify himself. Fox’s report said that while he Gross were struggling to subdue Rivera “someone said that Rivera had a gun.”

When the officers realized that Rivera was armed, the friend who had summoned Rivera outside shouted that he was a Customs agent, Rivera said. Gross’s report noted that “after further investigation, it was revealed that Rivera was an agent with the U.S. Customs Service.”

According to Rivera, an unidentified police supervisor who had arrived at the scene began cursing at Rivera’s friend and said that he was being taken to jail. His fiancee told the officers that she did not want to press charges, but the officers responded with more profanity, Rivera said both in the interview and in court.

Instead of being taken to jail, Rivera ended up at police headquarters, where he was released to the custody of his Customs supervisor, who was summoned from home.

The police abuse did not end with his arrest, Rivera alleged. He was taken to a hospital for treatment for his broken hand. At the hospital, he was placed in a wheelchair and his left hand handcuffed to the chair.

“Gross pushed me to the X-ray room. Along the way he purposely bumped me against a wall and a doorway,” said Rivera, who added that he testified about this at the trial.

After he was treated at the hospital, the officers handcuffed his left hand behind his back to a belt loop and put him in the back of a patrol car.

“They used another handcuff trick commonly used by cops. He left the handcuff real loose, so it could ride up on my arm and cut off circulation to my hand. Before long, my left arm was swollen,” Rivera said.

He arrived at the police station and was kept in the back seat of the patrol car for 90 minutes, while Fox and Gross went inside, Rivera said. Later, he demanded that police take photos of his injuries and swollen left arm. The pictures were used as evidence at his trial.

His run-in with the San Diego Police Department was embarrassing and painful, but the behavior of the police was equally disturbing, Rivera said. Police personnel records show that Fox and Gross had worked a combined total of 34 months as San Diego police officers when they arrested Rivera.

“It bothered me that these two officers were just starting on their careers . . . . How are they going to act, six or 10 years down the line? I overcame the charges against me because the jury saw that I have credibility as a federal agent. But what about other people who aren’t in law enforcement? It’s their word against the cops. And who does the district attorney or a jury usually believe?” Rivera said.