Posted on 07/29/2003 2:51:05 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc4.tv ...
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