Deliberations to Begin in Bias Trial

Los Angeles police officers acted properly when they ordered three blacks, including a Virginia judge, out of a car at gunpoint and forced them to lie face down on a street while handcuffed, a city lawyer said Friday.

“None of the officers did anything wrong,” Assistant City Atty. Don Vincent told a federal jury in a racial profiling lawsuit against the city. “They were following the policies and tactics of the department, tactics that over the years have saved many, many lives.”

Alotha C. Willis, a judge from Portsmouth, Va.; her husband, Wayne Person, a civilian contract manager for the Navy; and Sheryl Crayton, an assistant principal at a Carson middle school, are suing 10 police officers involved in the July 3, 1999, episode in Venice, as well as top Los Angeles Police Department officials.

In his closing argument to the jury, civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman claimed that the three were pulled over and subjected to a so-called “high-risk felony prone” search solely because they were African Americans.

He also accused LAPD brass of fostering a “xenophobic” and “paramilitary” culture that permits racial profiling of black motorists.

“This has been going on forever,” Yagman said. “It was going on under Chief [Daryl F.] Gates. It is going on now.”

Over the course of the monthlong trial, Yagman subpoenaed a parade of present and former police chiefs and members of the Board of Police Commissioners to support his claim that the department maintained a custom and practice of tolerating racial profiling.

They included Gates, former Chief Bernard C. Parks, current interim Chief Martin Pomeroy, 12 present and former police commissioners, and two LAPD inspectors general.

Most said that they had no personal knowledge of any racial profiling incidents, and that any such conduct would have been improper under the department’s policy banning racial discrimination.

Last August, Parks issued a special order outlawing racial profiling.

Yagman accused Parks in particular of resisting efforts by the police commission and the inspector general to exercise civilian control over the department. Parks resigned this year when the police commission voted against renewing his contract.

In his closing remarks, Vincent defended Parks and his predecessors, contending that they maintained a “zero tolerance” policy on racial discrimination.

He urged jurors to focus their attention on the incident that triggered the lawsuit.

Officers Luis Navarette and Manuel Ibarra testified that they spotted Crayton’s red Volvo making an illegal right turn at an intersection in Venice while they were on traffic patrol.

Navarette said he ran a computer check and was advised that the license plate on the Volvo belonged to another vehicle. After getting the same response a second time, Navarette said, he and his partner figured the Volvo might have been stolen, and could have been used by someone planning to commit a robbery.

The officer testified that he radioed for additional patrol cars and a police helicopter.

But Yagman argued Friday that Navarette called for backup even before he had run the car’s plates.

“The only information Officer Navarette had at the time was that the occupants of the Volvo were black, and that there was a traffic infraction. That’s racial profiling,” he contended.

Vincent countered that Yagman was confused about the timing of events, and that the officers acted only after they ran the license plate number.

“Their mind set was [that] this was a possible felony or a felony in the making,” he said.

As a tactic, he said, forcing someone to lie prone in the street “is not pretty, but it’s the safest way to handle an unpredictable situation.”

Willis, Person and Crayton testified that they were on the ground five to 10 minutes. They were then helped to their feet by officers, led to a sidewalk and frisked.

A short time later, their handcuffs were removed and they were allowed to go without being cited. A sergeant at the scene told them the Department of Motor Vehicles had sent Crayton data on someone else’s license plates in error.

The jury will begin deliberations next week.