Williams Reverses Firing of Civilian Police Employee by Gates : LAPD: The woman had scuffled with two officers in 1991 at Parker Center. The chief has recommended a 90-day suspension instead.

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams has reversed a decision by former Chief Daryl F. Gates to fire a civilian employee who had scuffled with two police officers in a parking garage at Parker Center in a 1991 incident that she contends was racially tinged.

A spokesman for Williams declined Thursday to say why the chief took the action and recommended a 90-day suspension for Jennifer J. Jones, who had worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for 10 years as a jail supervisor.

The matter now goes back to the city Civil Service Commission, which has the option of imposing the suspension or asking Williams to change it. Commissioners have indicated that they believed that firing Jones was too severe a punishment given the lighter penalties police officers have received for more serious infractions. They voted unanimously in August to send the case to Williams for review after Jones appealed her job loss.

Gates, who had by then retired, would not comment on the reversal.

“It’s really the chief’s prerogative to make that kind of decision,” Gates said of Williams. “I’m sure he’s thought a lot about it.”

Michael J. Berman, executive director of Jones’ union, the Los Angeles City Supervisors and Superintendents Assn., said he hopes that the commissioners at a Dec. 18 hearing will seek no penalty against Jones, 42.

Charles J. Mazursky, Jones’ lawyer, said the action will have no effect on a civil lawsuit his client has filed against the two officers and the city. It alleges that Metro Division Officers Michael Daly and John Puis used excessive force against Jones, violated her civil rights and assaulted her.

Neither Daly nor Puis could be reached for comment about the reversal.

The incident occurred during the height of the controversy over the police beating of Rodney G. King and drew allegations of brutality and racism from community activists and City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Jones, who is African-American, testified at the Civil Service Commission hearing that the white officers called her “black bitch” while striking her with a baton.

They denied that, saying she provoked the incident by attacking Puis after he stopped her in the garage--a restricted area--and she could not produce proof that she worked for the department.

The officers contend that Jones hit Puis on the forehead with an LAPD-issued self-defense device attached to her key chain after he grabbed her arm.

Police officials have said Daly then hit Jones with his baton, handcuffed her and placed her under arrest. She was freed after workers at Parker Center confirmed her identity.

Jones has acknowledged that she was without her identification that evening but contends that she gave Puis her name, her watch commander’s name and her serial number. She said he could have confirmed her identity by calling Parker Center on his police radio.

She denied deliberately hitting him with her key chain and testified that the officers shoved her, struck her and pushed her over the trunk of a car, twisting her fingers when she could not produce her identification.

Mazursky said Jones was psychologically as well as physically injured and was on a disability leave for seven months as a result. When she returned to work last February, he said, her supervisors “retaliated” against her by trying to force her to discuss the incident with them. She had a relapse and again took a disability leave, Mazursky said.

Gates fired her three months later, an action that he said was upheld by a hearing officer.

The former police chief said Thursday that he took the action on the “very, very strong recommendation” from Jones’ commander and a deputy chief, even though her more immediate supervisor, like Williams, had sought a 90-day suspension.