Prosecutor seeks 'police brutality' case retrial
Prosecutors are to seek a retrial of a former Los Angeles police officer who was videotaped punching and slamming a handcuffed black teenager on to a squad car.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said he would ask the judge to schedule a new trial within 60 days. A jury in the first trial was deadlocked on Tuesday on whether Jeremy Morse was guilty, and the judge declared a mistrial.
“It is important for the community that this case be resolved,” Cooley said.
A judge had arranged the next court hearing for September 22, and said any retrial would begin on September 29. Cooley said he would ask for earlier dates.
Morse’s lawyer, John Barnett, said earlier that he would ask the judge to dismiss the charge against Morse.
The jury acquitted Morse’s partner, Bijan Darvish, who had been charged with filing a false police report.
The issue of race was never mentioned at the trial, but the image of a white officer battering a black youth made national headlines and sparked angry protests in the heavily minority city of Inglewood, about 10 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
A coalition of community leaders urged calm, hoping to prevent riots like the ones that devastated the city after white police officers were acquitted in 1992 of state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, a black motorist.
Police reported no problems after Morse’s trial.
Prosecutors had described Morse, 25, as an “out-of-control officer” during the two-week trial, but Barnett argued Morse was doing his job and had only seconds to decide how much force to use against a potentially dangerous subject.
