Probe to Date Finds No Fault in Fatal Arrest

Despite an autopsy that cited police restraint maneuvers as a factor in an Atwater Village man’s death early this year, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Friday that a preliminary investigation found the conduct of officers didn’t “appear inappropriate.”

A report by the Los Angeles County coroner said three factors contributed to the death of 35-year-old Jose Antonio Rodriguez: cocaine intoxication, coronary disease and police restraint procedures employed during his arrest Jan. 18.

The death has sparked outrage among members of the Latino Community Forum, an advisory group for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Bratton came to the defense of six officers involved in the arrest after a heated community meeting Thursday night at which Latino activists complained that not enough attention had been paid to the Rodriguez death, compared with the videotaped beating of suspected car thief Stanley Miller in Compton last month.

“The LAPD seems only transparent when the beating is videotaped by the media,” said Xavier Hermosillo, a forum member who sits on the police board that reviews use-of-force cases. “Where is the sensitivity to us?”

Rodriguez died at Glendale Memorial Hospital the day after LAPD officers took him into custody. Police said the arrest was made shortly before 5 p.m. at Riverside and Fletcher drives, after reports that a half-naked man was jumping on cars and creating a public nuisance.

Rodriguez became disturbed as officers handcuffed him. He was so combative, LAPD officials said, that the officers had to use their body weight to force him to the ground and a hobble restraint -- a piece of nylon -- to tie his ankles together.

During the 1.2-mile trip to the police station, he thrashed wildly in the cruiser, cutting his head when he hit a plexiglass partition, Assistant Chief George Gascon said.

“Forcible body compressions” applied by LAPD officers contributed to Rodriguez’s death, said a June 3 coroner’s report.

Once officers reached a Northwest Division police station parking lot and tried to remove Rodriguez, he broke free of the hobble restraint, according to the report.

As officers tried to restrain him again, they “placed knees on the decedent’s back, and other officers attempted to apply a rope hobble. During this procedure the decedent suffered a respiratory arrest,” wrote James K. Ribe, the senior deputy county medical examiner.

Paramedics resuscitated Rodriguez, but he died the next afternoon.

“Although it was not the intention of the officers to cause death or injury, and no conclusion is made by us as to any error on their part,” Ribe wrote, “as a matter of forensic medicine this is death at the hands of another.”

Early this week, Rodriguez’s family filed a federal lawsuit alleging wrongful death, violation of civil rights and battery. The lawsuit claims the officers beat the suspect and failed to drive him directly to the station.

Hermosillo said Friday that civilian witnesses at the police station that day reported the car being covered in blood and Rodriguez being unconscious.

The officers named in the lawsuit -- Matthew Eddy, Neil Amundson, Steven Grimmer, Anthony Kong, Jesus Plascencia and Timothy Borngrebe -- remain on duty.

Bratton said a careful review of radio tapes and times showed that the officers did drive directly to the station. Much of the reaction to the case has been based on a “significant misunderstanding of the circumstances,” Bratton said.

He added, however, that the investigation was continuing.

Gascon said officers took Rodriguez to the hospital for narcotic treatment and believed that there was only a “minor use of force.”

He said that, unlike in the Miller case, the department did not have the advantage of a videotape and only learned of the circumstances the day after Rodriguez died. He noted that the autopsy was not completed for months.

Hermosillo said witnesses at the police station the day of the arrest would contradict the officers’ version of events, but he declined to elaborate.

Bratton said Rodriguez was never booked at the station, but was instead taken straight to the hospital.

He said the LAPD made “a mistake” in failing to notify the family quickly enough.

“That is inexcusable,” the chief said.