L.A. Confidential Part 8

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 "b.l.o.o.d.y Christmas" scandal.

Seven officers have received criminal a.s.sault 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 a.s.sault.

Officer Michael Krugman, Second Degree a.s.sault and Battery.

Officer Henry Pratt, Second Degree a.s.sault.

Sergeant Elmer Lentz, First Degree a.s.sault with Battery.

Sergeant Wilbert Huff, First Degree a.s.sault with Battery.

Officer John Brownell, First Degree a.s.sault and Aggravated a.s.sault.

Sergeant Richard Stensland, First Degree a.s.sault, Aggravated a.s.sault, 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 "b.l.o.o.d.y 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 "b.l.o.o.d.y 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 "ma.s.sive 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 "b.l.o.o.d.y 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 a.s.sault and Aggravated a.s.sault 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 a.s.sault, Aggravated a.s.sault, First Degree Battery and Mayhem, the charges stemming from the former police detective's alleged maltreatment of Central Jail prisoners during last year's "b.l.o.o.d.y 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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:

TWO EXLEY GENERATIONS SERVE THE SOUTHLAND

The first thing that strikes you about Preston Exley and his son Edmund is that they don't talk like cops, even though Preston served with the Los Angeles Police Department for fourteen years and Ed has been with the LAPD since 1943, shortly before he went off to war and won himself the Distinguished Service Cross in the Pacific Theater. In fact, before the Exley clan emigrated to America, their family tree sp.a.w.ned generations of Scotland Yard detectives. So police work is in the clan's blood, but even more so is a thirst for advancement.

Item: Preston Exley took an engineering degree at USC, studying by night while he pounded a dangerous downtown beat by day.

Item: The late Thomas Exley, Preston's eldest son, achieved the highest scholastic average in the history of the LAPD Academy, and a plaque commemorating him is hung in the Academy's administration building. Tragically, Thomas was killed in the line of duty soon after his graduation. Further item: The second highest average was earned by Ed Exley himself, a summa c.u.m laude UCLA graduate--at nineteen!--in 1941. Evidence going back generations: the Exleys don't talk like cops because they are not typical policemen.

Both men have been in the news lately. Preston, 58, has teamed up with world-renowned cartoonist/moviemaker/TV show host Raymond Dieterling to build Dream-a-Dreamland, the monumental amus.e.m.e.nt park that broke ground six months ago, with completion and opening scheduled for late April of next year. Exley Senior began his career in the construction business after he left the LAPD in 1936, taking his chief aide, Lieutenant Arthur De Spain, with him. At his s.p.a.cious Hanc.o.c.k Park mansion, Preston Exley spoke with _Mirror_ correspondent d.i.c.k St. Germain.

"I had an engineering degree and Art knew building materials," he said. "We had our combined life savings and borrowed from some independent investors who appreciated the wildcat mentality. We started Exley Construction and built cheap houses, then better houses, then office buildings, then the Arroyo Seco Freeway. We flourished beyond my wildest dreams. Now Dream-a-Dreamland, the gentle dreams of millions of people realized on two hundred acres. In a way, it's a hard one to top."

Exley smiled. "Ray Dieterling is a visionary," he said. "Dream-a-Dreamland will give people the chance to live the many worlds he has created through films and animation. The mountain that he's calling Paul's World is a perfect example. Paul Dieterling, Ray's son, died tragically in an avalanche back in the mid-30s. Now there will be a mountain that serves as a benevolent testimony to the boy, a mountain that brings people joy, with a percentage of the revenues earned going to children's charities. That's a hard one to top."

But will he try to top it?

Exley smiled again. "I'm addressing the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the State Legislature next week," he said. "The subject will be the cost of Southern California ma.s.s rapid transit and the best way to link the Southland by freeway. Frankly, I want the job and I'm ready to offer the county an enticing bid."

And then?

Exley smiled and sighed. "And then there's all these politico fellows who've been pestering me," he said. "They think I'd be a natural for mayor, governor, senator or whatever, even though I keep teffing them that Fletcher Bowron, d.i.c.k Nixon and Earl Warren are friends of mine."

But is he ruling politics out?

"I rule nothing out," Preston Exley said. "Setting limitations is against my nature."

And, as our reporters discovered, his son Edmund, now a detective sergeant with the LAPD's Hollywood Division, feels the same way. Recently in the news for testifying in a trial related to the "b.l.o.o.d.y Christmas" police scandal, Ed Exley sees blue skies ahead-- although he plans to keep police work his sole career. Speaking to our correspondent at his family's Lake Arrowhead cabin, Exley Junior said, "I want nothing other than to be a valuable, ranking detective presented with challenging cases. My father had the Loren Atherton case"--a reference to the 1934 child murderer who claimed six victims, including child star Wee Willie Wennerholm--"and I'd like to be in a position to work cases of that importance. Being in the right place at the right time is important, and I have a deep need to solve things and create order out of chaotic situations, which I believe is a good drive for a detective to have."

Exley was certainly in the right place at the right time in the fall of 1943, when, the sole survivor of a bayonet attack on his platoon, he single-handedly wiped out three trenches full of j.a.panese infantry. He was in the right place at the right time for justice when he courageously testified against fellow officers in a ma.s.sive police brutality scandal. Exley says of the two incidents: "That's the past, and right now I'm building for my future. I'm getting solid experience working Hollywood Detectives, and my father, Art De Spain and I spend evenings performing mock questionings to help me perfect my interrogation techniques. My father wants the world, but all I want is the most this police department has to offer."

Preston Exley and Ed Exley survive Thomas, and Marguerite (nee Tibbetts) Exley, the clan's matriarch, who died of cancer six years ago. Do they feel the loss in their personal lives?

Preston said, "G.o.d, yes, every day. They are both irreplaceable."

On that subject, Edmund was more reflective. "Thomas was Thomas," he said. "I was seventeen when he died and I don't think I ever knew him. My mother was different. I knew her, she was kind and brave and strong, and there was something sad about her. I miss her, and I think the woman I marry will probably be like her, only a bit more volatile."

Two generations for this week's Profile--two men going places and serving the Southland while they do it.

BANNER: L.A. _Times_, July 9:

LOEW ANNOUNCES D.A.'S CANDIDACY

BANNER: Society Page, L.A. _Herald-Express_, September 12:

GALA LOEW/MORROW WEDDING ATTRACTS HOLLYWOOD, LEGAL CROWDS

EXTRACT: L.A. _Times_, November 7: