Attorney's Bureau had stated that first-degree assault bills seemed imminent. The grand jury's foreman stated that four police-beating victims recanted their previous testimony, which had Officer White attempting to strangle Juan Carbijal, age 19. The recanted testimony directly contradicted the testimony of LAPD Sergeant Edmund J. Exley, who had sworn under oath that White had, in fact, attempted to grievously injure Carbijal. Sergeant Exley's testimony is not considered tainted, since it resulted in probable indictments against seven other officers; however, although the grand jurors doubted the credibility of the recantings, they deemed them sufficient to deny the D.A.'s Office true bills against Officer White. Deputy D.A. Ellis Loew told reporters: 'Something suspicious happened, but I don't know what it was. Four retractions have to supersede the testimony of one witness, even as splendid a witness as Sergeant Exley, a decorated war hero.''
Newsprint swirling. Bud said, 'Why? Why'd you do that for me? And how?'
Smith crumpled the paper. 'Lad, I need you for a new assignment Parker has given me the go-ahead on. It's a containment measure, an adjunct to Homicide. We're going to call it the Surveillance Detail, an innocuous name for a duty that few men are fit for, but you were born for. It's a muscle job and a shooting job and a job that entails asking very few questions. Lad, do you follow my drift?'
'In Technicolor.'
'You'll be transferred out of Central dicks when Parker announces his shake-up. Will you work for me?'
'I'd be crazy not to. Why, Dudley?'
'Why what, lad?'
'You shivved Ellis Loew to help me out, and everyone in the Bureau knows you and him are tight. Why?'
'Because I like your style, lad. Will that answer suffice?'
'I guess it'll have to. Now let's try 'how?''
'How what, lad?'
'How you got the spics to retract.'
Smith laid brass knucks on the table: chipped, caked with blood.
CALENDAR
1952
EXTRACT: L.A. «Mirror-News», March 19:
POLICE BEATING SCANDAL:
COPS DISCIPLINE THEIR OWN
BEFORE WORST CULPRITS STAND TRIAL
LAPD Chief William H. Parker promised that he would seek justice-'wherever the search takes me'-in the tangled web of police brutality and civilian lawsuits that has come to be known as the 'Bloody Christmas' scandal.
Seven officers have received criminal assault indictments stemming from their actions at the Central Division Jail on Christmas morning of last year. Those officers are:
Sergeant Ward Tucker, indicted for Second Degree Assault.
Officer Michael Krugman, Second Degree Assault and Battery.
Officer Henry Pratt, Second Degree Assault.
Sergeant Elmer Lentz, First Degree Assault with Battery.
Sergeant Wilbert Huff, First Degree Assault with Battery.
Officer John Brownell, First Degree Assault and Aggravated Assault.
Sergeant Richard Stensland, First Degree Assault, Aggravated Assault, First Degree Battery and Mayhem.
Parker did not dwell on the charges facing the indicted policemen, or on the scores of civil suits that beating victims Dinardo Sanchez, Juan Carbijal, Dennis Rice, Ezekiel Garcia, Clinton Rice and Reyes Chasco have filed against individual policemen and the Los Angeles Police Department. He announced that the following officers would receive interdepartmental trial boards, and, if not vindicated, would be severely disciplined within the Department.
Sergeant Walter Crumley, Sergeant Walter Dukeshearer, Sergeant Francis Doherty, Officer Charles Heinz, Officer Joseph Hernandez, Sergeant Willis Tristano, Officer Frederick Turentine, Lieutenant James Frieling, Officer Wendell White, Officer John Heineke and Sergeant John Vincennes.
Parker closed his press conference praising Sergeant Edmund J. Exley, the Central Division officer who came forward to testify before the grand jury. 'It took great courage to do what Ed Exley did,' the chief said. 'The man has my greatest admiration.'
EXTRACT: L.A. «Examiner», April 11:
FIVE 'BLOODY CHRISTMAS'
INDICTMENTS DISMISSED; PARKER
REVEALS RESULTS OF TRIAL BOARD
ACTIONS
The District Attorney's Office announced today that five future defendants in last year's 'Bloody Christmas' police brutality scandal will not stand trial. Officer Michael Krugman, Officer Henry Pratt and Sergeant Ward Tucker, all forced to resign from the Los Angeles Police Department as the result of being charged, had their indictments dismissed on the basis of abandoned testimony. Deputy D.A. Ellis Loew, who had been set to prosecute them, explained. 'Many minor witnesses, prisoners at the Central Station Jail last Christmas, cannot be located.'
In a related development, LAPD Chief William H. Parker announced the results of his 'massive shake-up' of police personnel. The following indicted and nonindicted officers were found guilty of various interdepartmental infractions pertaining to their behavior last Christmas morning.
Sergeant Walter Crumley, six months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Hollenbeck Division.
Sergeant Walter Dukeshearer, six months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Newton Street Division.
Sergeant Francis Doherty, four months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Wilshire Division.
Officer Charles Heinz, six months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to the Southside Vagrant Detail.
Officer Joseph Hernandez, four months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to 77th Street Division.
Sergeant Wilbert Huff, nine months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Wilshire Division.
Sergeant Willis Tristano, three months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Newton Street Division.
Officer Frederick Turentine, three months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to East Valley Division.
Lieutenant James Frieling, six months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to the LAPD Academy Instruction Bureau.
Officer John Heineke, four months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Venice Division.
Sergeant Elmer Lentz, nine months suspension from duty without pay, transferred to Hollywood Division.
Officer Wendell White, no suspension, transferred to the Homicide Adjunct Surveillance Detail.
Sergeant John Vincennes, no suspension, transferred to Administrative Vice.
EXTRACT: L.A. «Times», May 3:
POLICE SCANDAL DEFENDANT
RECEIVES SUSPENDED SENTENCE
Officer John Brownell, 38, the first Los Angeles policeman involved in the 'Bloody Christmas' scandal to face public trial, pleaded guilty at arraignment today and asked Judge Arthur J. Fitzhugh to sentence him immediately on the First Degree Assault and Aggravated Assault charges he was facing.
Brownell is the older brother of LAPD patrolman Frank D. Brownell, one of two officers injured in a bar brawl with six young men last Christmas Eve. Judge Fitzhugh, taking into account the facts that Officer Brownell was under psychological duress over the injury of his brother and that he had been discharged from the Los Angeles Police Department without pension, read the County Probation Department's report, which recommended formal probation and no jail time. He then gave Brownell a year in the County Jail, sentence suspended, and ordered him to report to the county's chief probation officer, Randall Milteer.
EXTRACT: L.A. «Examiner», May 29:
STENSLAND CONVICTED-JAIL
FOR L.A. POLICEMAN
… the eight-man, four-woman jury found Stensland guilty on four counts: First Degree Assault, Aggravated Assault, First Degree Battery and Mayhem, the charges stemming from the former police detective's alleged maltreatment of Central Jail prisoners during last year's 'Bloody Christmas' scandal. In biting testimony, Sergeant E. J. Exley of the LAPD described Stensland's 'rampage against unarmed men.' Stensland's attorney, Jacob Kellerman, attacked Exley's credibility, stating that he was locked in a storeroom throughout most of the morning the events took place. In the end, the jurors believed Sergeant Exley, and Kellerman, citing the suspended sentence received by Bloody Christmas defendant John Brownell, asked Judge Arthur Fitzhugh to take mercy on his client. The judge did not oblige. He sentenced Stensland, already dismissed from the LAPD, to a year in the County Jail and remanded him to the custody of the Sheriff's deputies who would escort him to Wayside Honor Rancho. As he was led away, Stensland shouted obscenities regarding Sergeant Exley, who could not be reached for comment.
FEATURE: Cavalcade Weekend Magazine, L.A. «Mirror», July 3:
