Lawyer accuses Learning Disabled Black teen in rough Inglewood arrest of perjury
Monday, January 17, 2005 at 12:46AM
TheSpook
Police officer's attorney wants the alleged victim in the brutality case to be prosecuted.
The developmentally disabled teen whose rough arrest in Inglewood was
depicted in an amateur videotape is being accused of perjury for giving
conflicting testimony about the controversial incident that sparked
criminal charges against two officers. The attorney for one of the
officers, Inglewood police officer Bijan Darvish, sent a letter Friday
to Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley asking for the
investigation and prosecution of Donovan Jackson for seven potential
counts of perjury. For example, Jackson told a grand jury and jurors in
two criminal trials that he never resisted or grabbed the Inglewood
officers or sheriff's deputies during the July 6, 2002, scuffle at an
Inglewood gas station, according to the letter penned by attorney Corey
W. Glave. But in sworn depositions taken in his federal civil rights
lawsuit against Darvish, former officer Jeremy Morse, the city of
Inglewood, Los Angeles County and other officers, Jackson admitted he
grabbed Morse by the collar area while they were both on the ground,
Glave claims. "We understand that it may be tempting to view these
contradictions as simple failures of recollection, or innocent mistakes
of fact, but in actuality, the counts chronicled and the supporting
evidence contained with them indicate the calculated, malicious effort
of this young man to obstruct justice and mislead finders of fact in
order to obtain financial gains," Glave wrote. "Mr. Jackson has
deliberately engaged in perjurious testimony as it relates to material
and relevant facts and these charges deserve to be fairly investigated
and prosecuted," Glave added. Jackson, who was 16 at the time of the
arrest, was a witness for the prosecution before the grand jury and in
the criminal trials. A special education coordinator testified during
the trials that the Leuzinger High School graduate has disabilities
that affect his abilities to process information, making it difficult
for him to follow directions, remember events and express himself. [more]
Pictured above: Donovan Jackson & Inglewood's finest.
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