officers - The Black Vault

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I
ENT ·.
. Fedefal charges .
I Being ·Considered:
in: King Beatlng .:~~.
• i.aw: Justice Dept.
lawyers are investigating·
whether. his rights may
" ,, t _ " • ~ • ·' I~
. Constitution "Or laws of the J!liite9
States. In past cases brought under
those statutes by Justice Depar~r
. men.~ prosecutor~. courts h~ve he!~
that a persop has a right to be kept
have been violated by ' free from harm ~nd ~hl)t b~atlng
officers who failed to ;, · someone .without just cause vior
. . h\tes this right. · ·. . , • .,
, protect him from harm. , . Any feder~i prosecution· ·co~ld
be withheld if the officers ·are
By RONALD J. OSTROW . • · · c)larged by Los Angeles author!~
TIMEs STAfF WRITER. • . ties, one source said. The' source
wASHINGTON -Justice De- ' added that' tlie' federal' laws may
partment civil rights lawyers are P,rovide the best opportunity to
d prosecute the officers. But it 'is ,
cons! erlng·ways Jo bring federal possible to proceed· under. botli
charges against some of the Los. ·
Angeles police officers who stood federal and state laws without
by passively during the videotaped 'violating double jeopardy, protec~ •
beating of a motorist, government · tion~, the souFce said. ·
sources told The Times on Friday. DISCUSSing th~ _overall ~evie)" or
While no decision has been made. . brutality, wl\icn will cover ?omi
to go before a federal grand jury, . J?lalnts filed with the Justice Dei
the lawyers are studying the possi· . partment, the FBI and ~.S. 11ttor:;
bility of moving against the officers . neys over th!l last· s~ years~ Jo~l!.
on grounds· that they·had a legal R. Dunne!. assistant attor~ey ge~:i
obligation to keep the victim, Rod- , ~~al for civ)l_Fighl!!, ~.escrabe~ lt.~~
ney G. King free from harm a matter of. priority and saad 'Ius
according to the sources who de: ·.; div!,sion's "mos! e~erlenced peo"'
clined to be named. .. . ·pie have been assagned to it .. , "'
That· theory, based on: Recon- · ·.' ~u~ he ;de~line~ to :est1mat~
. structlon Era statutes,, has lleen · · whether the· process would ~ake.
used primarily to prosecute jailers days, we_eks or even months. .
who allow prisoners to beat otlier Because the records are not kep,t
inmates : by Sll)all enough geographical··
Mean~hile, responding to u.s. , units, the first job is sorting them
Atty .. Gen. Dick Thornburgh's .or- i Into areas that correspond with l~w
der to review police brutality na~ " . enf~rcement departments. The file 1 ·
tlonwide, Justice Department civil '. reylewe~s are star~ng with ~h~
rights divisiol! lawyers a 11 d parale-.. · mos~ recent cases an~ v.:or,km~
gals began the prodigious task of their way back,,J?u!lne said. . .
sifting through about 15,000 feder- ·· "Our object is·not·to reoperl
al files of brutality complaints to·· .. · , any of these·cases," he said;!
determine whether· any systemic., noting· that only 2% of the roughly,
pattern . of police abus~s e~ists , ·2,sqo comnlalnts)ihid annually de;;.
around the country.. . • •· velop. sufficient·~ evidence to be-
B_ecause the file~_...:sorite com~· ·presented to a ·gr~nd jury, and that·
puterlzed and some only paper··· only, two-thirds, or those cases;
records-are so voluminous, ·the :; ·.. result In indictments. . ·• •t•.:
review Is likely· to be time-con- ·;,' · Instel\d, the review will, seek, .to:
suming., And it Is not likely to determil!e whether the complalnts
result in lndividt.tal indictments, ,· . while in mo~t· Instances not merit.,:
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n the Los Angefes case, three .· ing pr9secut1ot1; ·nevertheless re~ •
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officers who allegedly took part'':, veal a p'a~fern· •of pollee ,brutality:•
.In the beating of King, a 25-year- t· Such findings could lead to legisla·•
old Altadena construction worker· , tio.n or steps to hefp a polici\;.
·who Is on parole after a robbery ,'. department·• undertake attitudinal
conviction, and a supervising ser· , , • changes or other training to curb'
geant at the scene were indicted · abuse, Dunne said. :·
Thursday on state charges: . · · . ·."In ad~ition . to , ~unishing, yte;
Federal civil rights lawyers and want to prev~?nt [pohce abuse)," hEr ·
FBI agents, W?rking independent· .. ~ald. ·. : . . . . . . . · WA:· ,1 1\ ll Of~M / ':'\ ~
ly of tl).e nationwide review or~ .'l'hornburg,hordered the revle~· ,... v'M""" ... ,~ \{-'!,.,;" . '
dered by Thornburgh,'are·under-. Thursd~y after he met ·with two! ·
stood to be focusing on a num'ber of senior mem~ers. !Jf ~he Congres:;t · 1 .. , " ' - ----·I
the 11 other officers at •the scene .. sional Black Caucus, Jteps. Edol~~
1."··· ~·'
who allegedly did nothing to stop . ph us Towns (!;>·N.Y.), who is cau."• :,~;.. :.a~itJ I.:.:J ~---,
the prolonged beating. . . · . · cus chairman; and. ~ohn Cony'ers
Federal charges could 'be,,: (D·Mich.). C,on:Yers agreed with:{
brought under two Jaws that date . Dunne, saying: "Prosecution Is not'·
. to the years Immediately after the ·:, the only issue here. We're tal~ingl
Civil War-one that ~ars consp,ira- ; about_ t!'llinlrlg .and racial serl~lti~fl
, cy against the rights of citizens and : tlon-ending alluses· beforll" they~
another that forbids d,epriving in" " occur." · .·, ' . ·· -':f'
dividuals of their rights "under ·If the review establishes a pato~
color of law," civil rights lawyers tern or police ·brutality, ·,it coula1
said. .• .. 1 ·lep.d Congress. to adopt ·solutions"
Neither .. statute ·specifieS" what ''ranging from.· unannounced ·FBI··
rights are protected,. other than to: •. audits of suspect police departnote
that they are rightS or-privi- . mentstomandatorytrainingioen