After an April hung jury in the case of two Palo Alto police officers accused in a brutal attack, prosecutors are now expected to announce a plea deal today that will leave many people very unhappy.
The prosecution, according to the San Jose Mercury News, is going to allow Michael Kan and Craig Lee to plead no contest to disturbing the peace by fighting in a public place. The maximum penalty this carries is a fine of $250. The plea will allow both men to remain on the police force. Craig Brown, Lee's lawyer, called the infraction ``somewhat less serious than a carpool violation.''
''I am happy for the officers,'' said Palo Alto Councilman Bern Beecham said Monday. ''For the city, this whole episode has clarified issues we need to address.''
The two cops had been charged with felony assault for the beating of 59-year-old Albert Hopkins in July 2003. Both officers are Asian American. The four jurors who held out for acquittal in the April mistrial all were Asian-American, while the other jurors (one African American, six whites and one person of unknown ethnicity) thought the cops were guilty as charged.
The Mercury News quotes Joe Hopkins, Albert Hopkins' brother and lawyer, as complaining, “They might as well give them a vacation to Hawaii.''
''It is disturbing, if it's true,'' Rick Callender, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP said in the Monterey County Herald. ''I hoped that they would get their fair day in court rather than get a 'parking ticket' for attacking an African-American man minding his own business.''
During the trial Hopkins had testified that the two rookie officers had pulled him from his parked car clubbed and pepper sprayed him. While the officers said that Hopkins was suspicious because he was parked near a bike shop that had recently been the site of a break in and acted in an uncooperative manner, Hopkins maintained he was attacked because he was black.
During his closing arguments assistant district attorney Peter Waite described the attack as worse than that upon Rodney White. He said Hopkins was minding his own business when he was assaulted by the officers and added, "This man Hopkins, whether you like him or not, was no criminal. He didn't drive drunk. He didn't flee the police. He didn't ever fight with them." "This case is far worse (then Rodney King) -- to pick out an innocent man, a 59-year-old man in his socks, to choose him for this outrageous treatment...These two thugs (Kan and Lee) beat the snot out of him with deadly weapons, with batons.” Waite said the cops embellished their reports to cover up their crimes. Sources: Monterey County Herald, San Jose Mercury News. BrownWatch News, San Francisco Bay View, CBS 5 (San Francisco Bay Area)
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