8 on panel favored convicting Palo Alto officers of brutality
The racially charged trial of two Palo Alto police officers accused of beating a 59-year-old black man ended in a mistrial Monday when the jury deadlocked 8-4 in favor of conviction. At least one juror said the hung jury broke down along racial lines, with four Asian jurors holding out against convicting the Asian American officers. During the trial in a San Jose courtroom, beating victim Albert Hopkins testified that the two rookie officers, Craig Lee and Michael Kan, pulled him from his parked car and clubbed and pepper-sprayed him because he was African American. Sunday Udoffia, the lone black jury member, said that during the four-day deliberations the two male and two female Asian American jurors maintained the police officers "were doing their job" and rightfully defending themselves against Hopkins, who police said had aggressively flung open his car door. Udoffia had supported conviction along with six whites and one person of unknown ethnicity on the jury. Now, prosecutors have to decide whether to retry the case. The incident occurred on the night of July 13, 2002, when Lee and Kan clashed with Hopkins after he refused the officers' orders to get out of his car and to turn over his identification. Prosecutor Peter Waite called reports that the jury fractured on racial lines "very disappointing.'' [more] and [more]
- D.A. calls case worse than Rodney King beating.Albert Hopkins was sitting in his parked car and minding his own business when two rookie Palo Alto officers arrested, pepper-sprayed and beat him with batons, said Peter Waite, a Santa Clara County deputy district attorney, during his closing argument in a San Jose courtroom. "Rodney King was in fact a criminal. Rodney King was driving drunk that night. He evaded arrest from two crimes ..." Waite told the jury. "This man Hopkins, whether you like him or not, was no criminal. He didn't drive drunk. He didn't flee the police. He didn't ever fight with them." "This case is far worse -- to pick out an innocent man, a 59-year-old man in his socks, to choose him for this outrageous treatment." Waite called the two officers "thugs" who overreacted out of fear. "These two thugs beat the snot out of him with deadly weapons, with batons," said Waite, who argued that the two officers then tried to embellish their reports and lied about what happened to cover up their actions. [more]
- Palo Alto Pays Man $250,000 For Alleged Beating [more]