Jury fails to convict assault case policeman

PROSECUTORS in Los Angeles were yesterday deciding whether to seek a retrial, after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of apoliceman who was caught on video assaulting a handcuffed black teenager.

The jury, which included one black member, cleared Jeremy Morse’s partner of making a false report about the incident last July in Inglewood.

Morse is white, and the tape of him punching and slamming Donovan Jackson, then 16, into the side of his patrol car evoked painful memories of the police beating of motorist Rodney King and the riots it sparked.

Morse, aged 25, was expressionless as the jury returned without a verdict on him after three days of deliberations.

Both he and his partner, 26-year-old Bijan Darvish, could have been jailed for three years if convicted.

When the jury said it was deadlocked on Morse, someone in the court stood up and yelled: “No justice here!”

District Attorney Steve Cooley said his office would review the proceedings against Morse and decide whether to seek a retrial. People outside held up signs saying “Peace After the Verdict”, hoping to prevent riots like the ones that devastated Los Angeles in 1992 after four white officers were acquitted of charges in the videotaped beating of King. The four days of riots left 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

The city’s police chiefs anticipated trouble last night and kept officers late on their shifts and increased patrols, but no violence was reported following the verdict.

Jackson, who was not in court yesterday, and his father, Coby Chavis, also have state and federal civil rights lawsuits pending against the officers, the city and Los Angeles County.

The judge said a hearing on whether to have a retrial would be held on September 22, and that, if one was to be held, it would begin on September 29.