Miller Urged to Drop All Charges Against Penn

About 50 people representing legal, community and religious groups Tuesday called for San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller to drop all charges against Sagon Penn and accept a jury’s decision to acquit the young black man of murdering one police officer and attempting to murder another.

“If they don’t have new evidence, if they don’t have new witnesses, if they don’t have a better attorney, and they’re not complaining about the jury, why a new trial?” asked Reiko Obata, chairwoman of the Sagon Penn Defense Committee. “It’s obviously a waste of taxpayers’ money and a waste of time for all involved.”

Penn, 24, was found innocent last week of murder in the March 31, 1985, shooting death of San Diego Police Agent Thomas Riggs and attempted murder in the shooting of Police Agent Donovan Jacobs. The jury was deadlocked, 11-1, in favor of acquitting Penn of the attempted murder of Sarah Pina-Ruiz, a civilian accompanying Riggs as an observer.

Most speakers at the noon press conference at Neighborhood House on South 41st Street based their arguments on the results of the trial. The jury also voted, 10-2, to acquit Penn of voluntary manslaughter against Riggs and attempted voluntary manslaughter against Jacobs.

“I think it’s been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that Donovan Jacobs acted irresponsibly and unprofessionally on March 31, 1985,” said Muhammad Abdullah, a committee member. “We have to put all the emotions aside and look at the facts.”

In an interview Tuesday, Jacobs said Penn should be tried a second time “for Tom.”

Steve Casey, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Miller has not decided whether to pursue a second trial.

Casey added that the district attorney’s office has received about 200 phone calls, 90% of them favoring another trial. However, public pressure will not sway Miller, he said.

“Ultimately, the D.A. is not going to make a decision based on press conferences, phone calls or public-opinion polls,” Casey said.

Jacobs, who has been assigned to the police field training unit, said he has no qualms about the methods he used to subdue Penn and would expect other officers to do the same. Defense witnesses testified that Jacobs provoked Penn by beating him repeatedly and using racial slurs.

“Sagon Penn was the problem that night,” Jacobs said. “Me and Tom handled the situation correctly. If anything needed to be changed, it was Penn’s behavior. It wasn’t our actions that provoked it; it was Penn’s actions.”

When he learned that Penn was released from jail Thursday on $25,000 bail, Jacobs said, his first thought was that Penn “is going to hurt someone else.”

Penn has, in essence, been kept on trial because of the backlash against the jury’s decision, Obata said at the press conference. She called people who have refused to accept the verdicts “poor losers.”

“Another thing I would like to point out is the lynchlike atmosphere that’s been created around the case, and I feel that the media are as responsible as anyone else for creating this kind of atmosphere,” said Obata, citing death threats to the Penn family and defense attorney Milton Silverman. “It’s an atmosphere that gives a green light to racism in this city.”

Obata criticized a story, based on a poll of 502 city residents, in Sunday’s San Diego Union that gave opinions of people who had not seen the evidence the jurors saw. The respondents to the poll split evenly on whether they agreed with the verdict, but expressed support for a second trial on other charges on which the jury could not agree.

“I just think they are trying to create an atmosphere that we need a new trial,” Obata said. “What I object to is their whole motivation, which is to retry Sagon Penn in the paper.”

Similar comments hostile to the press prompted a heated exchange between two television reporters and Penn supporters at the press conference.

Obata also said the Penn case should be handled the same way as a recent case in which charges were dropped against an officer who was accused of police brutality.

Last year, veteran San Diego Police Officer Arturo Velasquez was charged with felony assault for kicking a handcuffed 18-year-old man in the face after he was arrested. The jury deadlocked 6-6--a more encouraging split for prosecutors than the Penn verdicts--but the district attorney’s office dismissed the case.

But Casey said later that the Penn case involves more serious charges and is not comparable to the Velasquez case.

“You don’t make your decision on whether the case was prosecutable simply on the basis of a jury count,” Casey said. “It isn’t an election. I think it’s a foolish exercise to say you did this on this case and that in another case because each case is different.”

Many speeches at the press conference accused the Police Department and other groups of racism and brutality.

Russell Andalcio, spokesman for the UC San Diego black student union, said comments by Police Chief Bill Kolender after the trial “have served to publicly defend the life-threatening attacks on Sagon Penn.” He said calls for a retrial constituted “a sophisticated attempt to whittle away at the jury system.”

Others urged dropping the charges to calm the community.

“The Black Federation feels the whole tragedy has gone on long enough,” said the group’s chairman, Merkel Harris. “The community of Southeast feels it needs to work with the Police Department, not against it. . . . It is time to put it aside and to work harmoniously to provide better communication with the police and the community.”

The Rev. J.L. Whitmill, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, said: “The community left the decision to the courts for dealing with the situation. The jury gave their report. Let’s accept their decisions. Let’s all stay calm and prayerful.”

Jacobs said the media and minority leaders are exaggerating the police-community problems in the city’s black neighborhoods.

Jacobs said he was unaware that Deputy Chief Norm Stamper recently described the situation as a “crisis,” and suggested that Stamper has a different perspective than he does. Jacobs said he based his statements on 3 1/2 years of patrol work in Southeast San Diego and recent conversations with officers who worked there.

The seven-year police veteran acknowledged that the Penn verdicts indicated that jurors did not believe his testimony. None of the numerous eyewitnesses supported the wounded officer’s statements that he stopped Penn for making a U-turn and that Riggs, not Jacobs, initiated the physical confrontation with Penn.

“I tell exactly about what I remember that night,” Jacobs said. “If my story differs from other people, it doesn’t mean I’m lying or my memory is defective. I’m just saying what I remember happening. . . . I would hope the jury can understand that.”

Several jurors have said that they did not believe Jacobs’ testimony.

Jacobs, 29, said he believes the jurors did not understand the nature of police work or the concept of reasonable doubt in deciding the case.

“It’s difficult out there,” Jacobs said of patrolling San Diego streets. “Sometimes you have to be harsh. I don’t think they understand that we deal with bad guys.”

Jacobs, whose paralyzed left arm remains wrapped in a sling, talked to reporters this week under the watchful eye of his supervisor, Sgt. Dennis Johnson. Occasionally, Johnson advised Jacobs not to respond to questions concerning Penn, Penn’s attorney and his own conduct prior to the shootings.

Jacobs said he, not Penn, was put on trial. He said he could not think of another case where such an extensive background search of an officer who was a victim in a shooting was conducted by the defense. He said he didn’t think his past had any relevance to what happened on March 31, 1985.