Taped Cop Beating Trial Resumes

An expert on mental disabilities may testify Monday in the trial of two white police officers charged in the violent arrest of a black teenager.

Inglewood, California, officer Jeremy Morse — since fired — is accused of assault under color of authority. His former partner, Bijan Darvish, is accused of filing a false report.

Last week, in testimony about being hit, Donovan Jackson, 17, identified Morse and Darvish as two of the four officers who hit him after Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies stopped his father's car for having expired license tags. The Inglewood officers arrived as Jackson was being questioned.

The teenager said he was afraid of the officers because one had a hand on his gun. He felt it was wrong that they asked him to get in their police car because he hadn't done anything wrong.

"They came fast," he said of the officers. "All of them started rushing me and started hitting me."

"Donovan, did you understand why any of this was happening to you?" prosecutor Michael Kenneth Pettersen asked.

"No," Jackson replied. He spoke haltingly in a low voice and appeared confused by many of the questions, asking attorneys to repeat them.

His parents have said he is developmentally disabled. When asked to raise his right hand for the oath, he raised his left.

Defense attorneys contend that Jackson attacked officers, leading to a scuffle on the ground, after which he was handcuffed and hoisted to his feet. A bystander's videotape, which Jackson watched along with others in the courtroom, showed Morse punching him in the face and slamming him onto the trunk of a police car. The defense contends the teen had grabbed the officer's groin.

Jackson testified that he grabbed the front of Morse's shirt as they were on the ground and he was being struck, but he denied striking or causing any injuries to the officers.

Attorney John Barnett, who represents Morse, showed photos of a scratch on Morse's neck and the officer's bloody ear. He asked Jackson if Morse's wounds could have occurred in the time he claims to have been unconscious. Jackson denied he caused them.

Barnett tried to show Jackson was an unreliable witness. ¼"You don't know from the time you were picked up from the ground to the time you got into the police unit, you do not know what you did with your feet and what you did with your hands," Barnett said.

"Yes," Jackson said.

"You can't tell the jury that you did not grab Jeremy Morse's testicles when you were at the back of the car, right?" Barnett asked.

"Yes," Jackson said.

Jackson had told prosecutor Pettersen he was not conscious when he was moved from the ground to the car, but he told Barnett he was awake at the time. He later told Barnett that he didn't know the definition of the word "conscious" and thought it meant to be "not awake."

Also testifying were Inglewood Officer Mariano Salcedo and sheriff's Deputy Carlos Lopez. Salcedo said that after Jackson was brought to his feet he heard Morse say, "Let me go, let me go," and then noticed Morse flinch and strike Jackson.

Lopez testified that Jackson lunged at him at about the time the Inglewood officers approached the car. He said the officers helped take Jackson to the ground. Lopez said he recalled punches being thrown in the scuffle, but he did not recall Jackson hitting the officers.