3 fired Oakland police officers are accused of framing suspected drug dealers
A panel of ethnically mixed jurors was quickly selected Monday to hear
the retrial of three fired Oakland police officers accused of framing
and abusing suspected drug dealers in West Oakland four years ago. If
alternate jurors are selected today, as expected, attorneys' opening
statements could begin as early as Thursday. The original trial of
Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag, Matthew Hornung and Jude Siapno -- known on
the streets as "The Riders" -- lasted more than a year and ended in
September 2003 with a mostly Caucasian jury acquitting the men on eight
charges and deadlocking on the remaining 27 criminal counts. The
outcome was publicly decried, with some complaining the original jury's
racial composition didn't reflect Oakland's demographics. The men who
testified they were falsely accused of possessing crack cocaine or
roughed up were all black. Mabanag, 39, and Siapno, 36, are Filipino,
while Hornung, 32, is white. Purported "Riders" leader Frank Vazquez is
Hispanic, and is believed to have fled to his Mexican homeland to avoid
prosecution. Defense attorneys contended after the first trial that the
facts of the case, not the composition of the jury, dictated the
outcome. It is the accused who are entitled by law to a jury of their
peers, not the accusers, the defense team pointed out at the time. [more]