officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
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page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
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1' Edition:
Lawyers Assess
King Caselmpac~
onBrutalityTria~
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• Courts: Videotaped violence is among :
the evidence in the federal prosecution ofi
six former Oakland Housing Authority l
police officers.
l
.' ~y CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT
TIMES STAFF WRITER
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SAN FRANCISCO-The black-and-w~ite. vid~pi.
tape, at times blurred, shows a figure in shadow, on his
.back, arms loosely outstretched. A ·police officer with
the Oakland Housing Authority steps out of his c~
-orders the man to roll over on the sidewalk, and 1
kicking him in the ribs, yells:· "Don't you ever raisj
. your hands to me again." ·
The videotape-shot more than a year ago during a
.investigation by the Oakland Police Department-is at
the center of a U.S. District Court trial of six forme~
Housing Authority officers that is expected to conJ.
· elude here next week. The man on the ground is a9
·'Undercover police officer,
- And because brutality is amqng the accusations
leveled against the ex-officers, the trial is also caugh~
, in a whirlwind of negative publicity generated b)!
Rodney G. King's beating by police in Los Angelesj
l Defense attorneys and the prosecJltor in the Oakland
ease disagree· over how much impact the King
· videotape has had, but all say that jurors cannot b~
forbidden to follow national news.
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In the Oakland case, .undercover police officers
taped the arrest scene and collected other evidence i1
,;.·a· four-month "investigation that began almost ~wo