SB Now

By Robert Rogers and Mike Cruz
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO -- Charges were dismissed against one suspected gang member while defense attorneys for six others signaled they would move to compel the opening of confidential personnel and other records of the narcotics officers who arrested them.

Citing insufficient evidence, San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney James Hoffman dismissed drug charges against 29-year-old Donald Joseph Mackson.

Asked after Wednesday's hearing to explain why charges against Mackson were dropped, Hoffman declined comment.

But after a brief open hearing - which was abridged by a closed-door meeting between Superior Court Judge John Martin and a half-dozen attorneys - the talk was of cracking confidential personnel and other inter-departmental information.

"This is the only way I can get the information I need," said defense attorney Sean O'Connor, who represents Frederick Edward Williams, 29. Williams and five remaining defendents were scheduled to return to court Sept. 26.

Asked whether his motion to force open confidential department personnel records would extend beyond Sgt. Bradley Lawrence, O'Connor affirmed.

"It's going to be everybody who's involved," O'Connor said, confirming that he was interested in every officer on Lawrence's narcotics team.

Coming out of the closed hearing, Martin said O'Connor informed him that he would be filing a motion for the records, adding that he suspected "everyone else will join on that."
Asked about Mackson's charges being dismissed, O'Connor said he was "not surprised."
"That's appropriate if what I suspect is true pans out," he said.

O'Connor added that the information he is seeking includes normally confidential history records, including citizen complaints filed against officers.

Defense attorney David Menezes, in the courtroom as an observer, said allegations of investigative misconduct by local police floated around before the case drew attention.

"The allegations make you wonder," Menezes said. "How many questionable or illegal searches potentially may have gone on out there and not been reported."

Lawrence was placed on paid leave Aug. 7, more than a month after detaining,
searching and later arresting seven men in a way that drew complaints from Sgt. Mike Desrochers, a veteran officer who wrote to an assistant chief that Lawrence's action "constitutes an illegal arrest."

But Lawrence continued to work the street until a second complaint was lodged against him regarding his tactics during a raid on a local motel last week, sources in the police department have said.

Along with Williams, the other five defendants are alleged gang members ranging in age from 22 to 37 and are charged with possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana for sale and street terrorism.

The charges stem from July 2, when Mackson drove his grandmother's Nissan Altima with Carl Edward Alexander on Waterman Avenue.

Lawrence and other San Bernardino police officers, in street clothes and riding in an unmarked van, pulled the pair over, detained them and later drove their car to the police station, according to other officers and defense attorneys.

Desrochers immediately questioned Lawrence's tactics and reasons for detaining the pair, and now maintains Lawrence led his team in holding the two without cause while looking to obtain a search warrant.

Alexander's girlfriend, Jatasha Sims, 28, said outside court on Wednesday that she thought it strange that Mackson's grandmother was able to pick up her car from the police station one week later, with no towing or storage bills.

Wednesday's hearing was scheduled for arguments for three defendants to withdraw pleas they'd entered, before police tactics were called into question.

Instead, Martin ordered that hearing postponed until Sept. 26.

Martin himself complained that he didn't have enough information about the case, saying he hadn't reviewed police reports or other intelligence.

"I don't know ... anything about the case except the bail hearing that we had (Aug. 1) and the newspaper articles," Martin said.

With all parties still lacking satisfactory information and the police department gripped in an internal investigation into the matter, a request to compel the opening of departmental records represents a potentially crucial development, attorneys said.

"It is a relatively unusual move" particularly when the District Attorney joins it, Menezes said.