Police hire officer linked to beating

Department defends Bijan Darvish, who was involved in an incident involving Inglewood teen.An officer involved in a high-profile videotaped beating of an Inglewood teenager has been hired by the Huntington Beach Police Department.

A recent memo from City Administrator Penny Culbreth-Graft announced that the police department hired Bijan Darvish from the Inglewood Police Department, along with three officers from Newport Beach and Long Beach.

Darvish, who was sworn in Tuesday, was acquitted on charges that he filed a false police report in the 2002 beating of a 16-year-old African American boy whose father had been stopped for expired registration tags. The incident was caught on videotape and broadcast around the world, prompting days of protests.

Darvish, who is white, was given a 10-day suspension for failing to report that his partner, Jeremy Morse, had slammed the teenager onto the hood of the car. That suspension was later overturned by a labor mediator. Morse was fired.

Huntington Beach Police Chief Ken Small said he stood by the decision to hire Darvish.

“I personally struggled with the decision to hire him because of the possible media attention,” Small said. “But [I] reviewed the incident, and I don’t think he did anything wrong. He is an outstanding police officer.”

Small said the hiring was part of an ongoing effort to bring on officers from other departments as a way of avoiding the cost of training new ones.