Ex-Officers Accused of Torture by Stun Gun

Two former Huntington Park police officers were charged Thursday with torturing a juvenile suspect with a stun gun, and Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said he will investigate the practices of the entire department, which he called “embarrassing to all of law enforcement.”

The 17-year-old boy, identified only as Jaime R., sustained six burns on his left thigh from as many as 12 shots, according to graphic photos of the youth that Reiner displayed at a press conference.

Charged with felony assault were former Officers William J. Lustig Jr., 31, and Robert Rodriguez, 25. The 106-pound boy, with hands cuffed behind his back, was pinned in the back seat of a patrol car and jabbed repeatedly with the stun gun by both officers, Reiner said.

The gun, which delivers a 50,000-volt charge, is powerful enough to “drop a grown man” in his tracks without leaving a mark on his body, Reiner said. He added that the boy was burned through his pants because the officers held the gun on the boy’s leg and repeatedly fired it. The gun is not authorized by the department, Reiner said.

The officers questioned the boy on Nov. 30, he said, because they suspected him of stealing a car radio. The youth was arrested after confessing to the crime but was never charged. Andrew Reynolds, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said the case was rejected for prosecution by the office because of concern about a “tainted confession.”

Brandishing a black, 50,000-volt Nova stun gun allegedly used in the attack, Reiner denounced the two accused former officers as “thugs.”

“These two officers frankly are just thugs,” the district attorney said. “There’s no place for them in law enforcement. They are a disgrace to law enforcement.”

He added that “maybe there is a place” for the two accused men, “and that place is the state penitentiary.”

The two officers, Reiner charged, tortured the boy in the presence of at least three witnesses, who included other officers and a 16-year-old female Explorer Scout who was riding along with police.

The brazenness of the assault and the department’s history of brutality complaints have prompted him to open an investigation of the entire department that will go beyond brutality allegations, Reiner said.

“What stands out here . . . which has caused me to wonder what is going on in that entire Police Department is that the officers felt emboldened to carry out this practice in the presence of other officers,” Reiner said.

The stun gun incident was the latest and “most blatant” act of alleged brutality involving the department, Reiner said, adding that the force “has a record that is frankly embarrassing to all of law enforcement.”

The two accused officers were fired by Huntington Park Police Chief Geano Contessotto Monday and could not be reached for comment. If convicted, they face up to six years in jail.

Huntington Park Mayor Herbert A. Hennes on Thursday criticized Reiner and said he was reviewing his statements for a possible civil rights lawsuit against the district attorney.

“I’m amazed that a man in the position of Mr. Reiner would make such inflammatory statements,” Hennes said, contending that the district attorney’s remarks had jeopardized the two officers’ rights to a fair trial.

“To issue a blanket indictment of the entire Huntington Park police force is unfair and unwarranted,” Hennes said.

Police Chief Contessotto was on vacation, Hennes said, and could not be reached for comment.

Lustig’s lawyer, Richard A. Levine of Santa Monica, termed Reiner’s remarks “inappropriate.” Prosecutors “should have confidence in the cases they prosecute without the need to resort to press conferences,” he said.

He declined to discuss the case except to say that Lustig will surrender at an arraignment on felony assault charges today in Municipal Court.

Rodriguez’s lawyer, William J. Hadden of Santa Monica, could not be reached for comment.

The stun gun displayed by Reiner was seized by district attorney’s investigators during a Dec. 2 search of Lustig’s locker in the police station, Reiner said. The investigators used a search warrant to recover the gun, which authorities said was owned by Lustig.

Los Angeles sheriff’s and city police use a Taser gun, which produces a similar charge through darts rather than probes.

The district attorney’s investigation began two days after the incident when investigators were telephoned by Contessotto, Reiner said. He added that his office was also investigating a possible cover-up in the way the incident was investigated by Huntington Park police officers.

Police records say that Huntington Park officers declined to turn the boy over to a juvenile facility because a medical exam would have revealed the boy’s injuries and embarrass the department.

“Knowing that Los Cabrinos (juvenile detention facility) conducts physical exams of all their entrants and not wishing to expose the department to any embarrassment, I had the juvenile released to his parents instead of Los Cabrinos,” said a police report written by Sgt. Stephen Peller.