Jury Deadlocks On One Count In Violent Videotaped Arrest Trial LAPD Placed On Tactical Alert

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2365393/detail.html ^ | 7/29/03 | NBC

[Die_Hard Conservative Lady]

UPDATED: 2:41 p.m. PDT July 29, 2003

LOS ANGELES -- A judge declared a hung jury Tuesday in the case against a former Inglewood police officer accused of assaulting a handcuffed teenager during a videotaped arrest, but jurors found his partner innocent of falsifying a police report.

Jeremy Morse, 25, the former officer accused of assault, could have received as much as three years in prison if convicted. His partner, Bijan Darvish, 26, would have faced the same penalty.

The announcement came on the fourth day of deliberations. The verdict was read Tuesday afternoon in court before Superior Court Judge William Hollingsworth, Jr.

Darvish (pictured, left) and his attorney banged their fists on the counsel table and breathed "Yes" as the verdicts were read.

Someone in the courtroom yelled, "No justice here!" and was silenced by Hollingsworth.

People standing outside the courthouse held signs saying "Peace After the Verdict," hoping to pevent riots like the ones that devastated the city after four white police officers were acquitted of state charges in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1992.

Morse was white and the teen, Donovan Jackson, is black.

The Los Angeles Police Department has been placed on a citywide tactical alert. The designation allows for increased deployment of officers if needed in the wake of the reading of the verdict in the Inglewood police beating case.

Deliberations started Thursday on whether fired officer Jeremy Morse, 25, committed assault under color of authority when he slammed Donovan Jackson onto a police car during a July 6, 2002, arrest.

The jury asked for clarification of certain instructions Monday, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Morse's former partner, Officer Bijan Darvish, 26, is charged with filing a false police report about the incident.

Each could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

Jackson, then 16, was arrested for resisting arrest but never charged with a crime.

Prosecutors acknowledge that Jackson struggled with officers at the gas station where his father had been questioned about expired license plate tags.

But they contend he was limp or unconscious and no threat when Morse hauled him up by his collar and belt and slammed him onto the trunk of the car.

Morse then punched Jackson in the head but said it was a reaction to the youth grabbing his groin.

The incidents were videotaped by a bystander.

In closing arguments, the prosecutors called Morse an "angry, out-of-control" cop who was administering street justice to a suspect who had struggled with him.

The defense contended the police car trunk was flexible and Jackson wasn't seriously hurt. Lawyers argued Morse could be construed as having used reasonable force to subdue a suspect who was a potential threat.

Race was not mentioned in the trial, although Morse is white and Jackson is black. However, the videotape drew protests and comparisons to the 1991 videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King by four white Los Angeles police officers. Rioting broke out when the four were acquitted of state charges.

The four days of violence killed 55 people, injured more than 2,000 and caused about $1 billion in damage. Two of the officers were later sent to prison on federal civil rights charges.

"What we don't want to see is a repeat of what we saw in the Rodney King trial -- a weak prosecution, weak statements," Earl Ofari Hutchison, a community activist, told NBC4.

[jwalsh07]

You hardly have to be racist to point out that the LA rioters in '92 were black or that they were obviously using the occasion to loot and plunder with impunity.

Tell it to the black conservatives who post here. How exactly are they to take that statement?

Does the statement speak to individual's that riot as a means to profit or does it speak to a group of people who happen to be black?

I understand English and unless the poster tells me different I see it as insulting to the black conservatives who frequent this web site and not the way to win more blacks to the conservative side of the ledger.

How do you see it?

[Chad Fairbanks]

As a 'minority', I can be pretty sensitive to nuances in things people say, but sometimes people go a little bit overboard... But, what can you do?

[Chad Fairbanks]

I could understand your point if, for example, the poster in question had said "All blacks are lazy opportunists that use racism as an excuse to loot and get free stuff...", but I have to admit I didn't read that into what he said...

[gsrinok]

How do you see it?

I see it as a fact. It's hardly racist to recognize looters and rioters who prey on the helpless as the scum that they are. If white people were rioting in the streets because a black officer was not convicted in a case that involved a white criminal, I would call them scum as well.

[jwalsh07]

Well, Chad , I'll tell you what. I'm not a sensitive guy. I even chuckled at your second grade allusion to my sexuality.

But the black conservatives that I know post here are fed up with that kind of crap. But I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll ask them if they take umbrage at that staement and if I'm wrong, I'll apologise for being "sensitive".

What say you guys?

[jwalsh07]

It's also not racist to point out that, only a few weeks ago, several hundred (at least) blacks in Benton Harbor, Michigan, chose to riot after some idiot on a motorcycle decided to run from the police and ended up getting killed when he ran into a wall.

:-} I've got no problem calling scumbags scumbags. None whatsoever. It's broad brush sh%t that bugs me.

[gsrinok]

But the black conservatives that I know post here are fed up with that kind of crap.

The black conservatives that I know are sick of black hoodlums committing crimes and then playing the race card as if they shouldn't be held accountable because of their skin color.

[jwalsh07]

Do YOU? I can tell you in very few words, pal o' mine.

What? Do you do, Feel like you do....?

[jwalsh07]

The black conservatives that I know are sick of black hoodlums committing crimes and then playing the race card as if they shouldn't be held accountable because of their skin color.

What crime was committed? Did the riots start? Are they over? Who's playing a race card?

[Chad Fairbanks]

I could live with that - if people are reading something into it differently than I am, that's all fine and well.

However, I also know how I read it, and will, unless other evidence presents itself*, stick with my initial impression...


(*Evidence defined as any posts easily deemed racist by teh poster in question, which could in theory cause me to rethink my initial impression)

[gsrinok]

It's broad brush sh%t that bugs me.

Understood. I don't think, however, that it's too broad a statement to state that the '92 LA riots were racial in nature and overwhelmingly perpetrated by blacks who took the opportunity to victimize the innocent and helpless. A cursory glance of any video from that time period confirms it.

[blam]

"Maybe a couple hundred of wounded rioters would send a message to Jesse's minions."

62 died, don't know how many were wounded.

[jwalsh07]

Well, perhaps the poster will clarify. I don't know. Perhaps I misunderstood the intent but absent a response from the poster I'll stick to my first impression.

I'm not a holy roller Chad, I'm a sinner. I grew up in NYC and freely admit that in my misspent youth I was not a paradigm of virtue as regards race relations.

But I'm older now and have come to the conclusion that individual rights and personal responsibility should be the coin of the realm. I'm sick of group think and I see statements like that perpetuating it.

OK, done preaching.

[jwalsh07]

Understood. I don't think, however, that it's too broad a statement to state that the '92 LA riots were racial in nature and overwhelmingly perpetrated by blacks who took the opportunity to victimize the innocent and helpless. A cursory glance of any video from that time period confirms it.

Neither do I. I watched that group of punks smash the crap out of Reginald Denny with pieces of curb. And I watched as the shopkeepers defended their businesses with AK's and Ar's.

Screw the punks and good on the shopkeepers.

[gsrinok]

What crime was committed? Did the riots start? Are they over? Who's playing a race card?

I think most of the conversation here has been posted with the '92 riots in mind. No, there haven't been any riots in LA yet tonight, and I hope there aren't.

[gsrinok]

Screw the punks and good on the shopkeepers.

You got that right. There's no way I would operate a business ANYWHERE without easy access to my firearm.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, seems we both think a lot alike :0)

[jwalsh07]

paradigm=paragon dude