Civil Rights
Jul. 30, 2002
First Plaintiff Testifies In Racial-Profiling Case
LOS ANGELES - One of three African-Americans in a racial profiling trial against the Los Angeles Police Department testified Friday that he was forced at gunpoint to lie on hot pavement, handcuffed, told to shut up and called, "Boy."
Wayne Person, 50, a Department of Defense worker in Portsmouth, Va., said he perceived the officer's comments during the traffic stop in Venice to be a slur. "Help me, Lord," he said silently, because he feared being hurt, Person continued.
Person was the first of the plaintiffs, who also include his wife, Alotha Willis, a Virginia judge, and friend, Sheryl Crayton, a Los Angeles school administrator, to testify about the July 3, 1999, incident, in which officers briefly held the group on the belief that they were driving a stolen car. Willis v. Parks, CV-12705 (C.D. Cal., filed 1999).
The officers quickly discovered that the Department of Motor Vehicles had made a mistake on the license plate and freed the trio.
Before Person's testimony, former Los Angeles police Chief Bernard C. Parks made a brief appearance.
Parks told the jury that, following the incident, his department reassessed the training procedure for officers in suspected felonies, and determined that no changes were warranted. He said that officers are expected to use their own discretion when handling these types of potentially dangerous situations.
However, Parks said, that in this particular incident, one officer was disciplined for his use of "improper language."
U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder is presiding over the federal civil rights case.
Venice civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman of Yagman & Yagman & Reichmann & Bloomfield is representing the plaintiffs. Assistant City Attorney Don Vincent is representing the police department.
Susan Mc Rae
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