Civil rights activists urge charges in highway patrol officer beating case

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/los-angeles-police-beat-woman-highway-charges

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Civil rights activists are demanding that Los Angeles county prosecutors file criminal charges against a California highway patrol officer who punched a homeless woman repeatedly on the side of a freeway.

Daniel Andrew, who was caught on video beating Marlene Pinnock, agreed to resign in a deal brokered on Thursday which awarded Pinnock $1.5m in injuries and damages.

Activists and lawyers for Pinnock welcomed the settlement but said they would push for a prosecution. “We want him in prison,” Caree Harper, who helped secure the deal after nine hours of negotiations with the California highway patrol, told reporters. “I’m not done.”

The CHP sent results of its investigation of the incident on 1 July to county prosecutors last month. It said Andrew, who served as a patrolman for two years, could face serious charges related to the use of excessive force. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they will press charges.

Activists held a news conference at the site of the incident on the 10 freeway to demand that the district attorney’s office prosecute. “The CHP did their job. Now it is DA Jackie Lacey’s turn,” said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable.

In a joint statement the activists said the settlement – one of the CHP’s largest excessive force awards – did not end the quest for justice. “The settlement with her changes nothing. If anything it makes a prosecution more urgent now than ever.”

In court documents Pinnock, 51, who has bipolar disorder, said she was walking along the freeway and minding her own business when Andrew tackled her. In an interview with the Associated Press last month she said she feared for her life. “He grabbed me, he threw me down, he started beating me. I felt like he was trying to kill me, beat me to death.”

The CHP initially said Andrew was trying to stop Pinnock from wandering into traffic and causing high-speed collisions.

David Diaz, a music producer who was driving by at the time of the incident, filmed the officer straddling Pinnock and punching her at least nine times. The video went viral and prompted an outcry.

Some legal experts said Andrew’s actions were not necessarily criminal. Police have legal authority to use force and interpreting what is reasonable depends on circumstances, said John Barnett, an attorney who represented the police who beat Rodney King.

“Every video they show always looks horrible on TV,” he told the LA Times. “It is very easy to be outraged and horrified. That doesn’t tell you what the officer’s perception is. Right or wrong, it is the perception that counts.”

Legal analysts noted that a deal which included an officer’s resignation – Andrew will leave the CHP on 1 December and cannot reapply to join – was highly unusual and opened the way for similar demands in future high profile cases.