Acquitted 'Riders' officer sues Oakland for $5 million

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 4/10/6 | Henry K. Lee

[SmithL]

OAKLAND -- A former Oakland police officer acquitted of charges that he framed people as a member of "the Riders" has filed a $5 million federal civil-rights lawsuit, saying he was slandered.

The lawsuit filed against the city by Matt Hornung, 34, is the latest chapter in a saga that began six years ago when four members of what authorities called a rogue band of officers were accused of routinely planting evidence and beating suspects in West Oakland.

Two criminal trials ended in mistrials. Jurors acquitted Hornung on several counts in the first trial, and another jury cleared him of all charges in the second.

Hornung's lawsuit claims officers Keith Batt and Steve Hewison, who were rookies at the time, Sgt. Jon Madarang, who worked in internal affairs, lied on the stand in hopes of convicting Hornung and officers Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag and Jude Siapno.

"Batt, Hewison and Madarang engaged in intentionally and deliberately making false and misleading statements, destroying or hiding exculpatory evidence, intentionally creating false documentary evidence and then providing further false testimony to cover up the creation of the false documentary evidence," said the suit filed April 3 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The suit also names former Police Chief Richard Word, Madarang, Hewison and Batt as defendants. Word is now Vacaville police chief; Batt is now a Pleasanton police officer.

The suit said the defendants slandered Hornung when they called the accused officers "bad apples" and "a cancer which needed to be cut from the department."