Investigation into police/residents clash still ongoing

SAN BERNARDINO -- Sitting in her garage just a few feet from where police and residents clashed on Aug. 19, 2007, Yvonne Forbush is still disturbed.

"It was scary," said Forbush, 57. "It was like nothing I'd ever seen."

And what actually happened on her small street in the West Side apartment complex known as The Dorjils is still fuzzy more than one-year later.

An internal Police Department investigation of the altercation between police and mourners at a curbside vigil is still unfinished, police officials said.

Whatever happened at the apartment complex -- its name has been changed to Serenade -- it sparked a backlash of public protest and drove friction between police and residents in the mostly African-American neighborhood that ultimately drew the attention of federal authorities.

The clash occurred after police showed up while residents mourned the death of 22-year-old Charles Marshall, a young father who was gunned down outside his apartment.

The day after the melee, dozens of residents descended on City Hall to protest what they called police brutality. At that meeting, Mayor Pat Morris sought out Judith Little, Marshall's mother.

"I'm deeply distressed by the reports that were made today by your neighbors and friends," Morris said that day, before promising her "a thorough investigation."

Later, 6th Ward Councilman Rikke Van Johnson demanded to review the 9-1-1 tapes that prompted police to show up at the vigil.

City Attorney James F. Penman said at the time that a State Supreme Court ruling granted police chiefs the right to provide or withhold tapes.

Police Chief Michael Billdt did not release the tapes.

Later, a mediator from the U.S. Department of Justice came to help broker better relations between the police and the community.

As of Aug. 26, the investigation remains ongoing, said Police Lt. Scott Paterson.
"The department's review of the incident has not been completed," Paterson said. "Because it's a personnel incident we would not comment on it further."

But Paterson did say a lack of community cooperation was a factor.

"We went out to conduct our investigation, and the people we needed to talk to didn't wish to give statements," he said.

Paterson also noted that the department responded well to the federal mediator.
"We had several very positive meetings with the community," Paterson said, pointing out that officers went through a sensitivity-training program.

Morris also noted a lack of cooperation with investigators, emphasizing that the federal mediator also was unable to get more community members to open up.

Resident Linda Hart disagreed.

"To say the community whose rights were violated is to blame for your failed investigation shows why we need an investigation from above, not from inside," Hart said.

But with more than one-year elapsing since the incident, any results may not be actionable because the state's Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act includes a one-year statute of limitations on misconduct inquiries.

The bill states, "no punitive action ... , nor denial of promotion on grounds other than merit, shall be undertaken for any act, omission, or other allegation of misconduct if the investigation of the allegation is not completed within one year of the public agency's discovery..." by a person authorized to initiate an investigation of the allegation of an act, omission, or other misconduct."
There are some exceptions, but whether they would apply is unclear.

Residents in the apartment complex, along with its neighboring Little Zion Manor to the north, have seen spates of gunfire and killings in recent years, say they have little trust in the department to investigate itself.

T. Marshall, who said he was a cousin of the man whose death set the stage for what ensued, said the community doesn't trust the department, which partly explained why residents wouldn't cooperate more with department investigators.

"No one is surprised," Marshall said of the protracted investigation. "Everybody here knows they were in the wrong that day, and they know it too."