S.J. settles police brutality lawsuit
$390,000 FOR MAN WHOSE SKULL WAS FRACTURED
By Mike Zapler
Mercury News
San Jose officials agreed Tuesday to pay $390,000 to a Hayward man who suffered a fractured skull and broken arm at the hands of a San Jose police officer four years ago, ending a protracted civil rights lawsuit involving an officer at the center of several high-profile controversies.
Aaron A. Rivera filed the lawsuit in 1999 after he was beaten by officer Robert Reichert in what Rivera said was a case of mistaken identity. Reichert left the San Jose force in March after he was accused of threatening Santa Clara County Jail inmate DeShawn Campbell, who is awaiting trial on charges that he shot and killed a San Jose police officer in 2001.
Reichert is now an officer with the Salinas Police Department.
The settlement was reached Monday, shortly before a federal trial was scheduled to begin on the lawsuit alleging excessive force, and approved by the San Jose City Council in closed session Tuesday morning. Rivera, a car salesman with a 17-month-old daughter, said he felt vindicated by the payment but is still angry.
``It's great to finally get through this,'' Rivera, 23, said. ``I've been going through four years of agony, knowing that someone got away with almost killing me.''
Police Chief Bill Lansdowne defended the level of force Reichert used and said the city attorney's office should not have settled.
``It was my position that we should have tried that case and we could have won it,'' Lansdowne said.
City Attorney Rick Doyle was less certain.
``It was really the blow to the head and the fracture that caused concern,'' Doyle said. ``Anyone would acknowledge that was a mistake. It was inadvertent but the fact is it happened.''
Salinas city officials reached Tuesday night said they were not familiar with Reichert's past, but plan to review his hiring.
``I was not aware of what officer Reichert may or may not have done in the city of San Jose,'' said Mayor Pro Tem Jyl Lutes. ``Certainly this is something we will look into.''
Salinas City Attorney Richard Nosky Jr. said he did not know what hiring procedures were followed. Salinas Police Chief Daniel M. Ortega was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached.
Two versions
Rivera's case stemmed from an incident on a busy night in downtown San Jose. Police were searching for a person who struck another man from behind and stole his jacket after a concert at HP Pavilion, then San Jose Arena. Rivera was on Santa Clara Street near Second Street, in town with friends for the Cinco de Mayo festival.
What happened next depends on the version of the story one believes. According to police, Reichert and officer Albert Valcarcel came upon Rivera, whom they believed to be the robber, and told him to stop. Police said Rivera was holding a long metal pipe and fled from the officers.
When the officers caught up with Rivera, police say, he fought them, at which point Reichert hit Rivera several times with a baton in an attempt to subdue him. Trying to hit Rivera in the arm with the baton, Rivera accidentally hit him in the head.
Rivera denied fighting the officers. He said he ran to avoid being stampeded by a crowd of people rushing toward him on Santa Clara Street and might not have heard them over crowd noise. He also denied carrying a pipe, which police never recovered.
Rivera never became a suspect in the coat theft. A jury acquitted him on charges of unlawful assembly and carrying an illegal weapon and deadlocked on the question of whether he resisted arrest. He was found guilty of fleeing from police, and served 45 days of community service, paid a $1,000 fine, and was put on three years' probation.
Rivera underwent cranial surgery to relieve pressure on the brain and said he still has chronic migraines.
``I feel like I'm in my 40s when I'm in my mid-20s,'' Rivera said.
Other controversies
Reichert, 34, was involved in several controversies during his decade with the San Jose Police Department. In 1997, he was cleared in the fatal shooting of an armed motorist, David Lee Hamilton, who had been stopped on Capitol Expressway.
And last year, Reichert gained attention for allegedly threatening revenge against Campbell. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the officer after wrestling with a decision for several weeks. Days before the announcement that he would not face criminal charges, Reichert resigned.
Rick Callender, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, brought the Campbell incident to light and was outraged to hear that Reichert is working as a Salinas police officer.
``This guy has proven to be dangerous,'' Callender said. ``There is no way he should be a police officer anywhere in our nation.''
As part of the settlement, the city and the other officer, Valcarcel, were cleared of any liability in the case.
Randall Scarlett, Rivera's attorney, said that, based on his research, the settlement was the largest in San Jose history in a case involving excessive force by police that did not result in death. Doyle said he could not confirm that.
FYI, these links I'm posting arent from around the nation. They're from the Bay Area only.
Here is another case of wanton police brutality. The cops picked some guy and broke his skull with a baton. His department backed him on the action, even though he had already had several run-ins and eventually quit the force as part of an arrangement to avoid prosecution. Not only is the behavior outrageous and criminal, but the denial and coverup by the department is of perhaps even greater concern.
Notice that this is the second settlement for brutality in a major Bay Area city in a month. And the SF brutality case is still being investigated. Can anyone still believe these are isolated incidents and not part of a pattern? Can anyone argue that the victim, who merely attended an event in San Jose, in any way deserved to have his skull fractured?
And I'll tell you one other thing. The minute I read about that DeShawn Campbell arrest (for killing a cop) red flags went up. I'll bet even money that it was an inside job, and some poor schmuck is going to get life in jail or death for a crime the cops committed.
posted on February 26, 2003 10:42:58 PM new
There has often been proposed a central hiring databse on a national level for law enforcement applicants. It is all too common for a bad cop to simply pack up bags and move to anthoer, unsuspecting city where she or he will commit similar attrocities. This is a national outrage that such a system has not already been put into place. Police are afraid to do it because they themselves might not be hirable elsewhere if they screw up too badly. I have no tears for bad cops.
posted on February 27, 2003 12:54:42 AM new
I think that certain police deparments foster this sort of abusive behavior. If the police are sent onto the street believing because of input from their superiors that such activity is what is expected of them they will do it. Their chiefs set the tone and character of the entire department.
Where I used to live there is a very belligerent attitude on the part of the police in general, and a few of the officers are outragously given to abusive treatment because of it. One young officer has killed three citizens in very questionable cicumstances and each time has returned to duty eventually because of the support he's given by the department and the city. (last I knew he was confined to administrative duties). Ir is a small community in which the citizens who might object know that if they do there may well be a heavy price to pay - they'll be stopped every time the drive; watched continually, and generally harrassed all the time.
So it may not be the answer to merely focus on any particular wrongdoing officer.
