SAN DIEGO -- A black man who killed a white police officer in a racially charged confrontation has been acquitted of manslaughter in a case that exposed a schism between the police department and the black community.
A Superior Court jury that deliberated 23 days also found Sagon Penn, 25, innocent Thursday of charges stemming from the wounding of a second officer and a civilian in the March 31, 1985, confrontation.
'This was one of the most controversial cases in the history of this city, if not the most controversial,' Judge J. Morgan Lester told the jurors after the verdicts were announced in Penn's second trial.
In a tape-recorded statement to police shortly after the shooting that was introduced as evidence in the trial Penn said he acted in self-defense when he grabbed officer Donovan Jacobs' gun after the officer stopped the truck he was riding in.
Witnesses testified the officer pinned Penn, a student of Buddhism and martial arts, to the ground and struck him with his baton while cursing him with racial epithets.
After wrestling away the gun and wounding Jacobs, Penn fired at officer Thomas Riggs, killing him, and then fired into Riggs' police car, wounding Sarah Pina-Ruiz, who was accompanying the officers on a community 'ride-along' program.
Juror Janet Geisler said Penn's confession to police, which was not presented to the first jury, backed up many defense contentions.
'There were very few inconsistencies in his statements,' she said. 'It proved to me that Sagon Penn was a very reasonable 22-year-old (in his reactions to Jacobs and Riggs) ... That was a key issue in my eyes.'
But Riggs' widow charged Penn was acquitted because he is black.
'I feel that those two officers would have handled the situation in exactly the same manner if Sagon Penn was a white man,' Coleen Riggs said. 'But because Sagon Penn is a black man, he's free today. If he were white, I think he would have been found guilty of all the charges against him.'
Police Chief Bill Kolender called on the community and law enforcement to put the past behind them following the verdict.
Penn was found innocent of murdering Riggs in a 1986 trial, but the jury could not reach the required unanimous decision on the lesser offenses which were refiled by the District Attorney's office. The second jury also could not reach a unanimous decision.
'My inclination is not to try the Penn case again,' said District Attorney Edwin Miller, who plans to announce his final decision within the next few days.
Penn was found innocent of attempted voluntary manslaughter in the wounding of Jacobs and innocent of the attempted murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter of Pina-Ruiz.
Jurors said deliberations focused on whether the officers used excessive force against Penn rather than defense contentions that the incident was sparked by a racially motivated beating initiated by Jacobs, who is white, and joined in by Riggs.
Defense attorney Milton Silverman contended that Penn was convinced the officers were trying to kill him. He said Penn thought Pina-Ruiz was another armed officer because he could not see her clearly through the glare on the car window.
Penn, who remains free on $25,000 bond, had no comment. He is scheduled to appear at a August 3 hearing for disposition of the unresolved charges.
