Teen beat by police in LA
 

Officer suspended after videotaped beating
Teen says he did not provoke police


INGLEWOOD, California (CNN) --A teen-ager whose beating by Inglewood police was videotaped said Monday he had done nothing to provoke the attack, which his father said was racially motivated.

Sixteen-year-old Donovan Chavis, who is African American, told CNN's Connie Chung that his father had driven them to a gas station Saturday.

After Donovan paid for the gas and bought a package of potato chips, he said, he returned to the car and found police questioning his father, Koby Chavis, whose license plate had expired.

In addition, Koby Chavis said he told police his license had been suspended.

The teen said a police officer then turned his attention to him. "He said, 'Put those chips on the car and step back from the car.' " Donovan said he did just that.

"What they told him to do, he did it," concurred his father.

But police say Donovan lunged at an officer, a claim his father disputes.

Donovan was handcuffed, beaten and dragged on the ground by an 18-inch chain around his neck, which snapped, family lawyer Joe Hopkins told CNN.

A guest at a hotel across the street said he saw a crowd gathering around the melee, grabbed his video camera and began taping. "I saw them pick up the guy like he was a crash test dummy or something," Mitchell Crooks told CNN.

"The officer carried him over to the car and then slammed him, it looked like with all of his force, everything he had, and just slammed him down on the car.

"Then, the guy started looking up, the kid started looking up. He had a complete dazed look on his face, like -- 'What's going on? What's happening?'

"I think he had been beaten pretty bad before that. And then, just out of the blue, the cop just punched him right in the face. It was quite awful. I was just really disturbed by it."

Afterward, the police put the teen-ager into the police car and took him to a hospital.

At that point, "I noticed that they had noticed me filming it," Crooks said. Afraid the police would attempt to seize the tapes, he transferred them to others, he said.

Soon after, seven officers knocked on his door and asked him questions but apparently did not know it was he who had taped the incident, he said.

"I went into my room, changed clothes, grabbed a beer and went to the pool and acted like I didn't know what was going on at all," he said.

Asked if he thought the attack was racially motivated, Donovan's father said, "Yes, I do."

Said Hopkins: "One of the officers said to him, 'You're going to jail, nigger. We've already beat your son's ass and now we're sending you to jail. I'm going home and if I see you on the street, I'm going to send you to jail.' "

One of the officers appears to be black; the others white. Hopkins added, "There was no reason to approach them, other than their being in that location and being black."

Donovan is charged with resisting arrest and battery, and his father is charged with driving with a suspended license.

The father said he too was beaten, though that was not videotaped. "They grabbed me by my neck, slung me down on the ground, put their knee on my back and placed me inside the car."

His back was injured, he said.

But his son suffered the brunt of the blows, he added, injuring his eyes, nose, ear, and doing more subtle damage, too, he said.

"At nighttime, he's scared to go to sleep by himself at night. Wakes up screaming, scared of police. Scared to go outside by himself. He's frightened."

Officer Jeremy Morse, a three-year veteran, has been suspended with pay, said Lt. Eve Irvine of the Inglewood Police Department. "What occurred in the video is extremely disturbing," she said. "The incident is being taken very seriously."

The three other officers at the gas station were not relieved of duty.

An internal affairs investigation has been initiated, Irvine added.

But Hopkins is not waiting for the internal investigation. "We intend to seek justice in the courts," he said.

Family members said Donovan -- who attends special education classes -- has a hearing problem and a speech impediment and is sometimes slow to react, but that he would have been unlikely to provoke police.

"Donovan has always been a subdued child," said Talibah Shakir, his cousin. "He is quiet and doesn't bother anyone."








Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/08/pol...deo/index.html

I woke up to this story this morning. But it really doesn't surprise me at all. This type of stuff happens all of the time. I just wonder HOW those cops are going to worm their way out of this mess THIS time? :mad: :confused: On top of that, there was atleast ONE Brother right in the middle of that mess. :mad: Now you KNOW that he's not going to rat out his co-workers, right? But I hope that once the REAL story comes out, those cops are FIRED and that boy GETS PAID. I found it kind of ironic that the persons who video taped the encounter were...CAUCASIAN tourists. And even THEY were outraged by what they saw :p :p

Well, we can be sure to look for Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the NAACP to be involved in THIS. ;) ;)

Do you forget that we still live in the USA? Even better evidence has not stood up in court. Why else would they act so brazenly in daylight with a crowd watching? The fact they ALL were not suspended is further evidence that this will be handled inapproriately.
Sad, sad, sad...

Trust me, if the boy's family decide to sue, the city would have no choice but to settle the case and pay the family some money. They would be foolish to take this case to court and have a trial - the jury would have total sympathy for the boy, especially once they find out that he has a disability. What's wrong with the LAPD - I guess they haven't learned how to treat people :mad: And if the tourists were disturbed by what they saw - shame on those officers.

Re: Teen beat by police in LA
 

:mad:
Now see, this is the part that pisses me off the most. Beating up a boy with disabilities!!!!
:mad:

BTW, it's the Inglewood P.D., which is a separate city.

And I'm not so sure that a jury would be sympathetic to the young man, particularly if this case goes to trial and is not tried in a diverse city -- remember Simi Valley?

From the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site. BTW, Mayor Roosevelt Dorn is African-American. Inglewood is mainly an African-American and Latino city.

Mayor calls for firing of Inglewood officer videotaped hitting teen

By EUGENE TONG, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 9, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

(07-09) 12:40 PDT INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) --

The police officer videotaped slamming a handcuffed teen into a car and punching him should be fired, Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn said Tuesday.

"Based on the investigation he should be fired, no question about it, that's my opinion," Dorn told a City Hall news conference. Outside, dozens of angry protesters shouted, "No justice, no peace."

The investigation has not been completed, and Dorn called for it to wrap up within 10 days. He reached his conclusions from viewing a bystander's videotape of the Saturday evening incident, which has been shown repeatedly on television.

The tape shows Officer Jeremy Morse smashing 16-year-old Donovan Jackson's face into a car, then striking him in the face during an arrest at a gas station.

"In my opinion there isn't any question about the fact that when this officer picked this young man up, slammed him down on the hood of that car, in my opinion, number one felony assault, number two assault with a deadly weapon -- the deadly weapon was a car -- number three battery, number four child abuse, and I'm sure if I looked there are other crimes," said Dorn.

The mayor said he is familiar with criminal prosecutions because he was a judge prior to 1993 when he became mayor. Inglewood, a city of 115,000 in southwestern Los Angeles County, has a police force of 211 uniformed officers.

"My people are not going to riot when justice is done," he said in response to a question about whether protests could lead to a disturbance. "... This is not another Rodney King."

Morse, a three-year veteran, could not be reached for comment. A phone message left for the president of the Inglewood Police Officers Association was not immediately returned.

Dorn said Jackson's civil rights were violated and he called on the district attorney's office to act.

The Inglewood Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the district attorney's office and the FBI are conducting parallel investigations. Morse was put on leave Monday with pay. Morse is white and Jackson is black.

Jackson's father claims an officer used a racial slur during the incident. Police deny that.

Another person who claims he was victimized by Morse has also come forward.

Neilson Williams, 32, claims he was handcuffed and beaten by Morse and other officers June 23. Williams, who is black, alleges the officers gave no explanation for stopping him. He said he has filed a formal complaint with Inglewood police. Sgt. Ron Ragan said the complaint is confidential and an investigation is being conducted.

The videotape of Saturday's incident shows Morse hoisting the prone teenager to his feet and slamming him onto the rear trunk of a police car. Two other Inglewood officers appeared to intervene, with at least one trying to pull away the first officer's arm.

Morse and three other Inglewood officers were assisting sheriff's Deputies Carlos Lopez and Daniel Leon, who were investigating a car that had an expired vehicle registration. The teen was a passenger in the car, which was being driven by his father, Coby Chavis, 41, who also was cited for driving with a suspended license.

Inglewood police and sheriff's officials said the teen lunged at the deputies and was combative, while the boy's father and his family attorney said he cooperated with police and Morse attacked him unprovoked.

Exactly what happened before the camera rolled remained under investigation. Ragan said sheriff's investigators had collected images from gas station surveillance cameras but they had not yet been reviewed.

The teen was booked for investigation of assault on a peace officer after the incident. The family's lawyer, Joe Hopkins, said the teen is developmentally disabled and a special education student with no arrest record.

The video was recorded by a man who was staying at a motel across the street.

©2002 Associated Press

Of all the mornings I miss the "Today" show. My mom told me that Katie Couric interviewed the man who made the videotape. He mentioned that when the police officers saw him videotaping, they began to approach him, he went back inside the hotel and changed his clothes so he would not be recognized?:confused: If anyone knows anything about this interview, please provide details. My mama will get info twisted. But if she is accurate, I would like to know what exactly did they intend to do?

I sae the tape on the news the other night- it really did look like the other two cops were trying to stop him, but I will wait and see what happened.

Either way, I see a big, big settlement in Inglewood's future...

Oops - excuse my mixup :)

That would be messed up if the trial wound up not being in a diverse city :(

No problem. Inglewood is part of Los Angeles County, although it's a separate city.

As for the potential trial location, you never know with judges. Some judge could grant a change of venue because the defense attorneys could scream "prejudicial publicity" or something like that -- they fear that their client couldn't get a fair trial in Inglewood. :rolleyes:

I saw the interview with Katie and your mom is right. The guy who videotaped the incident said that police officers came to the hotel and asked a bunch of questions.. i guess looking for the tape.

This incident is NOT at all surprising to me. Anyone who has seen the tape can clearly see that the boy's treatment was totally unwarranted.

There is also a case pending in Oklahoma where 2 officers beat an unarmed man with police batons...I will try to find that story to post too...

Videotaper arrested
 

Man Who Taped Calif. Beating Nabbed
Thu Jul 11, 5:24 PM ET

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The bystander who videotaped a violent arrest
by Inglewood police but had avoided a grand jury subpoena was
arrested Thursday on outstanding warrants for petty theft.

Mitch Crooks, 27, was picked up outside
CNN offices, said district attorney's
spokesman Sandi Gibbons.

Crooks was at an Inglewood motel Saturday
when he videotaped officers arresting
16-year-old Donovan Jackson at a gas station
across the street.

The tape shows a handcuffed Jackson, who is
black, being hoisted to his feet by white
Inglewood police Officer Jeremy Morse and
slammed onto the rear of a patrol car, then
slugged by the officer.

Amid a public outcry, investigations were
begun by Inglewood police, the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department, the county
district attorney and the FBI ( news - web
sites).

In an unusual disclosure, Chief Deputy District
Attorney Curt Livesay revealed Wednesday
during a radio program that Crooks was being
sought by the grand jury investigating the arrest.

Crooks was doing a telephone interview with the radio program when
the prosecutor's call was put through. He told Crooks that there was a
subpoena for him to appear before the grand jury Thursday and he
should bring the original videotape of the arrest.

Crooks responded that he was afraid of being jailed and hung up before
telling the prosecutor where he was.

On Thursday, Crooks was arrested on warrants for petty theft and
driving under the influence with a hit and run, Gibbons said.

Capt. Rick Armstrong of the Placer County Sheriff's Department said
he had no details about the warrants or which police agency issued
them.

Steeltrap, you're absolutely right about that. It reminds me of the Amadou Diallo case back here in NYC. Even though he was shot by police officers in the Bronx, the venue was changed from the city to Albany, our state capital - the judge(s) also felt that the officers would not get a fair trial down here in the city - and they were acquitted for the shooting. :mad:

As for the person who videotaped the arrest being arrested himself, I smell a C-O-N-SPIRACY!!!! :mad:

Last night Connie Chung had 2 of the brutal po-po's friends on her CNN show. One of the guys interviewed was "black" :rolleyes:. They went on to say that their friend was not a racist and all this other hogwash. And that they had been friend in high school and all that. :rolleyes:

So what! I have a white friend and I would NEVER say that he is or is not a racist, drunk, bastid, or whatever. They do not know what was going on in that man's mind when he treated that CHILD like he was a grown azz man!

I do not understand how all those police officers would allow that CHILD to grab ole boys (stuff) and they not know it. Shucks, maybe it was one of his fellow officers that tugged on his you know whats...

uggggggghhhhhhhh!

His friends could say that the brutal po-po is not racist all they want - but what the officer did was still WRONG! Can his friends justify that?? Probably not. Po-Po still got his azz in trouble for hitting that CHILD. I can't stand when people insist on defending their friends when they do something ignant. :mad:

Update
 

Judge Moves Taped Beating Trial
Tue Aug 13, 3:21 PM ET
By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) - The trial of two white police officers indicted in the videotaped beating of a black teenager will be moved from Inglewood to another city, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Community activists said the move to Torrance — not a change of venue because both cities are in the same judicial district — was intended to thwart a conviction of the officers.

They compared Torrance, which is 60 percent white, to Simi Valley, the suburban area where four white officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. Inglewood is 19 percent white.

On the July 6 videotape, Officer Jeremy J. Morse was seen slamming 16-year-old Donovan Jackson down on a police car and then punching him on the jaw.

Morse is charged with assault by a peace officer under the color of authority and Officer Bijan Darvish is charged with filing a false report.

Superior Court Judge Rodney G. Forneret referred the case to Torrance at the request of defense attorneys. The attorneys gave no reason for challenging Inglewood as the site of the trial.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, said most felony case from Inglewood are routinely heard in Torrance.

A pretrial hearing was set for Aug. 21, with a tentative trial date of Oct. 15.

Re: Update
 

OH LAWDY.....HERE WE GO WITH THE "MOVE THE TRIAL" IDEA!:mad: :rolleyes:

You would think that some folks would have learned something from the L.A. riots! :rolleyes:

Re: Re: Update
 

The L.A. County DA's office there was trying to downplay the move by saying that Torrance and Inglewood are in the same judicial district and draw from the same jury pool. :confused:

Torrance is some 40% minority now, but it didn't used to be that way. Until the late 80s, it was fairly hardcore bigot town. When I was an intern reporter at the Los Angeles Times in 1986, I was assigned to a bureau there.

Heeeere's Johnnie, but the other atty gets p***ed
 

From the Los Angeles Times, interesting take.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE INGLEWOOD BEATING
Dumped Lawyer Criticizes Johnnie Cochran
Fame: As the latest to be replaced by high-profile rival, Joe Hopkins is publicizing his gripes.

By JOHN L. MITCHELL
TIMES STAFF WRITER

August 14 2002

Pasadena attorney Joe C. Hopkins had landed the biggest case of his 20-year legal career, one that would thrust him into the national spotlight, one with the potential of a huge settlement.

Hopkins was representing 16-year-old Donovan Jackson in the Inglewood police beating that had been caught on videotape. He had been on the "Today" show, "Good Morning America" and CNN. He had enlisted help from John Sweeney, a noted attorney who had mentored under one of the best: Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Together, Sweeney and Hopkins filed a lawsuit in federal court.

But then, just as quickly as they were in, they were out--replaced by none other than Cochran himself.

Now, a bitter Hopkins is portraying himself as the latest in a string of small-time lawyers big-footed by Cochran, whose law firm has expanded nationally in recent years. It is an assertion that resonates among several other attorneys whose high-profile clients left them for Cochran.

Plaintiffs can't be blamed for wanting higher-profile lawyers as their cases turn into social causes and become daily headlines. But in a climate in which lawyers are reluctant to publicly criticize colleagues--particularly powerful ones like Cochran--Hopkins has declared war. He is not only speaking out, but also airing his gripes in a free, 10,000-circulation weekly newspaper he publishes.

"Yes, it's sour grapes," said Hopkins, who shares a converted duplex office with another attorney. "But there is nothing wrong with complaining about sour grapes. He took a case from me, and that is what he does. Cases show up on the national radar, and he ends up with them. No matter who had it in the beginning."

Cochran did not return phone calls seeking comment.

But in a July 23 letter to Hopkins, Cochran said that Hopkins had provided "substandard" service and that Jackson and his father, Coby Chavis, had "lost all faith and confidence in you." Cochran also wrote that he had subsequently offered Hopkins a role on the legal team but that Hopkins refused.

Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law professor at USC, said Cochran's credentials in a string of police-abuse cases dating to the 1960s make him irresistible to many clients.

"He has credibility with juries.... To the extent that media matters, he's someone who can get media coverage," Chemerinsky said. "My sympathies are with the lawyer who lost the case, but you have to look at it from the client's perspective."

Added John Burris, a civil rights attorney: "It's a very competitive business. Who do you want to be at bat? Barry Bonds or the guy on the triple-A farm team?"

Hopkins was retained by Jackson and his father July 8, two days after the beating, to represent them in a civil suit. A few days later, the attorney said, he began getting feelers that Cochran was preparing to step in.

"I felt like I had just gotten a message from the mob godfather, tantamount to saying there is too much notoriety and money at stake for the godfather to miss this case," Hopkins wrote in a July 25 editorial in his Pasadena Journal. "Godfather or not, it was an offer I could and did refuse."

About the same time, Hopkins said, he received a message that another attorney, Milton Grimes, best known for representing police-beating victim Rodney King in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, was "seeking out" the case.

Grimes sent Hopkins a letter saying he represented the family. Cochran then moved in, Hopkins wrote. Ultimately, Cochran became Jackson's lawyer, and Grimes took over representation of the father, the subject of the police stop that led to the Jackson beating.

"I then realized that I was experiencing the underbelly of the legal profession, up close and personal," Hopkins wrote. His editorial included a cartoon depicting Cochran, dollar bills stuffed in his pockets, with six hands grabbing cases in states across the country. (That was a reference to the fact that Cochran's firm--Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, which has more than 100 attorneys--has opened offices in New York, Alabama, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.) On the next page, the paper had an article on "capping," a practice in which an attorney employs someone to solicit cases.

In Cochran's letter to Hopkins, he wrote, "I never did anything to solicit or otherwise obtain this case.... I was contacted and ultimately retained by Mrs. Chavis and Donovan Jackson because the clients were very unhappy with your representation."

Grimes, who became King's attorney after King grew dissatisfied with another lawyer, also denied Hopkins' claim. "I don't have to steal cases. There are plenty of cases out there," he said. "I have never stolen a case. It is unethical and dishonest to steal cases. I don't advertise. I don't use cappers. My cases come by word of mouth."

Chavis said in an interview that he decided to change attorneys because Hopkins improperly put his son in front of television cameras shortly after the beating. In response to a question about how he was feeling, Donovan said he was OK.

"My son made a slight mistake when he said he felt OK," Chavis said. "The attorney should have been closer to my son to stop him from saying that. He tried to clean it up, but the harm was already done." Hopkins declined to respond to Chavis' criticism.

Cochran first became prominent as a plaintiff's attorney with his representation of a young black man named Leonard Deadwyler, who was shot to death by police as he tried to rush his pregnant wife to the hospital in 1966. In the early 1970s, Cochran defended Black Panther Party leader Geronimo Pratt against murder charges. He then became a high-ranking county prosecutor. After returning to private practice, he won a judgment on behalf of Ron Settles, a college football player who Signal Hill police said hanged himself in a jail cell after being picked up for speeding.

It was against that backdrop that Cochran became a member of O.J. Simpson's criminal defense "Dream Team." Later, the attorney was part of the team of lawyers that won a $3-million settlement in Riverside for the survivors of Tyisha Miller, a black 19-year-old woman killed by a white police officer.

Hopkins, described by colleagues as having built a solid practice, said his sense of betrayal is deeper because of the admiration he had felt for Cochran. He said he had long believed that Cochran improved the standing of African American lawyers such as himself. He recalled giving Cochran a standing ovation when Cochran walked in to address a gathering of black attorneys. And he said he had defended Cochran against a public opinion backlash after a jury acquitted Simpson of murder.

Cochran and his associates have won settlements beyond Los Angeles in recent years, including $18 million in the police shooting death of unarmed black motorist LaTanya Haggerty in Chicago in 1999 and $8.7 million in a suit filed by Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant tortured with a broken broomstick in a New York police station bathroom in 1997.

Brian Figeroux, an attorney who represented Louima before Louima replaced him with Cochran's office, criticized Cochran's operation as a Wal-Mart-style big business whose magnitude makes it difficult for local minority attorneys to maintain a base. "When he comes into the community, how many businesses does he destroy?" Figeroux asked.

In another New York police case, Cochran overshadowed the first attorney hired by the family of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant whose death in a barrage of police gunshots in 1999 raised racial tensions. Lawyer Kyle Watters said he was forced into a secondary role once Cochran entered the picture. (Ultimately, the family discharged the entire Cochran team.)

"I think Cochran as an attorney should be free to make as much money ... as he can," Watters said. "My problem is ... when someone else is hired and he comes in and pushes them out of the way. I think that's wrong."

Cochran doesn't always prevail in these matters.

Soon after he agreed to represent Jackson, he took the case of a 32-year-old man who said he had been beaten by the same Inglewood police officer who beat Jackson. Cochran was hired to replace a young attorney straight out of law school. But the plaintiff changed lawyers again, replacing Cochran with Steve Lerman--the lawyer who was once Rodney King's civil attorney, only to be replaced by Milton Grimes.
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