LOS ANGELES, July 18 (UPI) -- A police officer was not out of line when he threw a handcuffed teenager on to the trunk of a patrol car and then socked him in the jaw during a videotaped arrest, his lawyer said Thursday.
Inglewood Police Officer Jerome Morse pleaded innocent in Los Angeles County Superior Court to a charge of assault by a peace officer under color of authority for seemingly roughing up the suspect, who Morse's lawyer contended to reporters was being combative and squeezing the officer's testicles at the time he was punched.
Attorney John Barnett told reporters outside the courtroom that while the videotape of the July 6 arrest showed an angry Morse reaching around from behind a seemingly dazed 16-year-old Donovan Jackson and striking him, the punch was only thrown to release Jackson's alleged painful grip and was a justified use of force allowed by police regulations.
"Under the circumstances of where their testicles are being grabbed, they are permitted to smack somebody in the face," said Barnett. "That's a certainty."
Morse, 24, pleaded innocent before Judge Dan Thomas Oki to the charge that was issued Wednesday by a county grand jury. He was released on $25,000 bond along with his partner, Bijan Darvish, who was charged with filing a false police report.
Oki ordered the case transferred to Inglewood and set an Aug. 13 pre-trial hearing at which time the defense could ask for the trial to be moved in another part of Los Angeles County or even elsewhere in California.
Darvish stated in his police report that he himself had punched Jackson twice as they struggled in the gas station where he and his stepfather had been pulled over by deputies for an expired registration tag, according to Darvish's lawyer, Ron Borwer.
Brower and Barnett told reporters that the grand jury chose not to charge Darvish with assault, and contended that Jackson had purposely gone limp, causing his body to be dropped, not maliciously slammed, on to the trunk of the patrol car.
The videotape of the scuffle then showed signs that Jackson was grabbing at Morse moments after he landed face first on the car, according to Barnett.
"You will see just prior to the punch, my client seeking to push the hand away and being unsuccessful and then punching the subject who had his hands on my client's testicles," said Barnett, who added that there have been cases around the nation in which officers have been injured by handcuffed suspects, including those who made grabs like the one Jackson allegedly made.
District Attorney Steve Cooley, a former police officer, declined to discuss specifics of the evidence, but he indicated to reporters that it was difficult to justify a law enforcement officer being physical with a handcuffed suspect.
"There is a bright line drawn when the handcuffs go on," he said.
The videotape of the arrest stirred up anger and memories of the 1991 beating of Rodney King by a group of Los Angeles police officers, an event that culminated the following year with the deadly Los Angeles riots.
While the Los Angeles area has remained quiet since the Inglewood incident, African-American activists had demanded Morse's immediate arrest. Some of those activists said Thursday they were pleased with the indictment.
"This is probably the swiftest arraignment ever held for a police officer when dealing with police brutality in America," declared Morris "Big Money" Griffin, a community activist and police watchdog since the O.J. Simpson trial, which like the King case was laced with allegations of police misconduct.
Barnett downplayed the relatively quick indictment, stating that it only involved two charges and 11 witnesses, although he chided Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn and other political leaders who joined the chorus calling for Morse's badge.
"In this political environment, every peace officer is at risk of being second guessed," he said.
Cooley, however, rejected the idea that his office had pushed through the indictment in order to head off a potential political mess and stated he was "convinced the charges are supported by the evidence."
"Protocols were followed, which is why we became involved at an early stage," Cooley said. "We work for the public. This is there law enforcement system and their justice system."
