officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
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(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
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0ffiCers
refuse
to talk
THE OUTLOOK
UES. MAR 26, 1991
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
Title: OFFICERS REFUSE TO TALK
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classification: 80-33B
Submitting Office:
IDS ANGELES
Indexing:
FBI halts probe at
Foothill Division
By Deborah Hastings
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The FBI stopped questioning polic~ officers
stationed at the same division as four policemen
charged in a videotaped beating because the officers
would not voluntarily cooperate, a union
lawyer said.
Meanwhile, a grand jury resumed its investigatioo.
.
Cecil Marr, an attorney for the Los Angeles
Police Protective League, which represents the
8,300-member force, said he was present at five
interviews Monday that were terminated by FBI
agents.
FBI agents called off interviews with 20 other
offic~rs Monday when the investigators were told
the officers would not voluntarily cooperate,
Marr said.
"There have been no substantive questions
asked (by the FBI) in my _presence," Marr told
The Daily News. "The FBI is insisting on only
voluntary interviews. Unless the police officer
gives up his rights, the FBI is not interested in
talking to him."
George Aliano; president of the union, said
that some officers agreed to be interviewed Monday
as part of the civil rights investigation, but
he provided no specific numbers or details of
what the officers said.
FBI officials, who sent dozens of agents into
the field to question all 240 officers assigned to
the Foothill Division, refused to discuss the investigation.
The county grand jury reconvened Monday to
hear evidence about officers who stood by and
watched the March 3 attack that prompted ·national
outrage.
MAl~ 2 t1 1991
"This suddenly has become the top priority in
the bureau," an FBI agent who refused to be
named told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
Sgt. Stacey Koon, 40, and Officers Laurence
PoJVell, 28, Timothy Wind, 30, and Theodore
:ar1seno, 38, were to make their pleas in Superior
Court today.
An amateur videotape of the assault shows
tha~ King, .a con'?cted armed robber, was beaten
56 times With police batons, kicked. and shot with
a Taser electric stun gun after his car was
stopped in the Lake View Terrace area.
Doctors say King may suffer permanent ·
damage from 11 skull fractures.
Koon and the others are charged with
· assault with a deadly weapon and unnecessarily
beating a suspect under color of authority.
Koon and Powell face additional
charges of filing a false police report, and
Koon is accused of being an accessory in an
alleged cover-up.
The four face maximum charg~s ranging
from four years to seven years and eight
months in prison.
The FBI agents had hoped to interview
all the nearly 250 Foothill officers in the
·division to see if a pattern of civil rights
abuses ~xists within the station, police Lt.
Fred N1xon said.
"They're asking about what kind of talk
·goes on in the locker room at the station
what they know about the officers at th~
scene and if they've ever worked with
them," Aliano said. · · ·
The union is proViding officers with an
attorney during the questioning, Aliano
s~?· adding.tha~ offic::ers who are on disa-
FBI/ooJ
bility are be"'JfiA~:,t/~~-l$1