Posted on 12/06/2006 9:44:09 AM PST by Yaelle
LONG BEACH - A group of alleged gang members on Tuesday rammed the car of a black witness who has testified for five days in the Halloween beating of three young white women by a group of black youths.
The witness - who the Press-Telegram decided not to identify because of previous charges of witness intimidation - was leaving the Long Beach Superior Courthouse on her final day of testimony with a police escort when she heard news of the attack from her boyfriend, said Cmdr. Jeff Johnson of the Long Beach Police Department.
Her boyfriend called her on her cell phone and told her that neighbors ran and got him after they saw a group drive by her car, which was parked in front of her home, and then back into it with such force that the vehicle is thought to be totaled, Johnson said.
Witnesses described the men as wearing clothing typically seen on members of the Baby Insane Crips, Johnson said.
"It appears as though they're sending her another message," the commander said.
It was following the witness' first day in court, Nov. 29, that she awoke to find six men who appeared to be gang members sitting on her car waiting for her. She was able to call police, who have since escorted her every Advertisement day that she has testified.
Johnson said that Tuesday's attack occurred just a day after one of the defense attorneys pressed the witness into describing her car, including the year it was made.
She balked at the questions on Monday, but was told by Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee that she must provide the information on cross examination.
Officers from the LBPD's Gang and Youth Services details are investigating, Johnson said.
During her five days of testimony, which included queries from nine of 10 defense attorneys and the prosecutor, the 18-year-old witness was questioned in minute detail by both sides in the case, then questioned in two more redirect sessions and re-cross examinations.
At the end of the day Tuesday, the judge thanked the witness for participating in the trial, or adjudication as it is called in juvenile court.
"You're welcome," she said in an exasperated tone, prompting several laughs in the nearly full courtroom.
Defense attorneys for some of the 10 minors in court focused once again on the witness' inability to recognize any of the minors in the courtroom.
She had testified that she was able to able identify some of the minors the night of the attack for police, and that two in particular stood out in her memory. She later matched the minors to their photos in court, but made a mistake with one identification.
Asked how the mistake occurred and the witness said that she could not see all of the minors in the crowded courtroom because her view was partially blocked by the judge's bench.
The defense attorneys also had her explain several times that she relied on the youths' clothing and hairstyles when she identified some of them the night of the attack in a field lineup, not their facial features.
Defense attorney Frank Williams Jr. asked the witness if the police detaining the 10 minors convinced the witness they were responsible for the beating.
"If they had had 12 in the cars, you would believe those 12 were involved?" he asked.
"Yes," she said.
Several defense attorneys, including Kathleen Moreno, John Schmocker and Clive Martin, asked the witness if what she had told police about their clients - that she did not recognize the minors in the lineup - was true. She agreed.
"Is it your testimony ... that you do not recognize her as one of the assaulting people?" Moreno asked.
"Yes," the witness said.
Deputy District Attorney Andrea Bouas asked the young woman if any of the questions that had come up in court over the last several days changed her mind about what she told police the night of the incident.
"Were you certain at that time ... about what each person may have done?" Bouas asked.
"Yes," the witness replied.
Accused in the case are 10 Long Beach youths - nine girls and one boy age 12 to 17.
All 10 have been charged with three felony counts of assault by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury. A hate-crime enhancement was added to eight of the 10 minors' charges based on witness statements that several of the attackers yelled racial slurs while beating the three victims.
Two other suspects
In addition to the 10 minors, two Long Beach boys - both 15 - were arrested within a few days of the beating and have also been charged with felony assault and the hate-crime enhancement.
One 15-year-old's adjudication is scheduled to begin Thursday, but it was not clear if the case would have to be delayed and possibly moved from Long Beach.
"I don't know, I've been busy with this case ... it may have to be tried by someone else," said Bouas, who handles juvenile prosecutions for the DA's Long Beach branch. "We'll see on Thursday."
The session began Tuesday afternoon with testimony from a Long Beach Police Department sergeant.
Police testimony
Sgt. Ali Assef, a 19-year veteran of the force, testified that he was the first on the scene after dispatchers put out a call about a fight involving a large crowd in the area of Linden Avenue and Bixby Road.
A massive crowd of trick-or-treaters had descended on the Bixby Knolls neighborhood to see lavish displays, including a haunted house visited by the victims and to collect extravagant amounts of candy being handed out there.
When he arrived, the sergeant said, he saw many people of different races scattered up and down the street.
He got a basic description of the suspects and their vehicles from several witnesses, Assef said, and then broadcast the information over the police radio.
He was also directed to one of the victims - a 21-year-old who suffered a dozen fractures on one side of her face and who may have permanent damage to her sight in one eye from the beating.
Field lineup
The sergeant testified that he eventually drove that victim to a grocery store parking lot on Long Beach Boulevard north of San Antonio Drive for the field lineup, about half a mile from the attacks.
Each witness was taken in separate police vehicles, he explained, and the drive lasted three minutes or less.
Assef left the 21-year-old victim sitting in the front seat of his black-and-white SUV for what he thought was 15 to 20 minutes as he and other officers put together a plan for the lineup.
The sergeant was asked about the lighting in the lineup and whether he spoke to her about the detained youths before she made the identifications.
The grocery store parking lot was lit by its own lights, as well as the police vehicle's spotlights and headlights, he said.
He did not talk to the victim about the minors other than to tell her that there were some possible suspects detained nearby and that he was going to take her there to see if she could identify any of them.
His communication with the officer calling the youths forward for the lineup was done through a signal - he turned on his red light bar - after the victim was done making her identifications and he had written down what she said.
"She said, `Yeah, she was standing next to the girl I just identified,"' Assef read from one of the forms.
"`She kicked me in the back of the legs and punched me in the back of my head,"' the sergeant read.
The victim, he said, signed each of the 10 forms after viewing each of the 10 minors. As he was reading from the forms, he said she identified four of the 10 minors.
Several attorneys zeroed in on the victim's ability to see that night, as well as her emotional state following the brutal beating, implying that her injuries may have interfered with her ability to identify witnesses.
"She had a black eye, a swollen nose and she had some blood on her face," Assef said.
Assef said the victim told him her jaw hurt, that she thought it might be broken, and mentioned her vision was blurred in one eye.
Testimony is expected to resume today at 1:30 p.m.
Tracy Manzer can be reached at tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1261.
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
These 10 juvenile thugs have expensive attorneys. WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS?
What has to happen for this to make national news?
Oh, wait, I know. For it to become national news it would have to have been three innocent black girls beat nearly to death by a gang of white punks.
Where the hell is Jesse Jackass and the media?
This is another war we can't win because PC doesn't permit it and PC trumps everything else in the society, including the Constitution.
I bet that Jesse Jackson, et al. is paying for the perpetrators' lawyers...after all, it's supposed to be black power, getting revenge on the "evil" white people.
let us hope that said attorney is also beign investigated. I can't see why she should have to describe her car unless it is to give the crooks a clear target.
Most of it seems to be about the [African descended] witness, not the actual racist crime.
And before you jump to conclusions such as yours, how many similar crimes occur across the country per year? (rhetorical). It could be that the media simply decided to not report another one, especially since there were no apparent deaths as a result of the crime.
Not likely. Brother Jesse is not spending any of his money on the cause. Maybe other people's money, but not his.
Ping to extreme witness intimidation by gangbangers in Long Beach hate crime. We need some outrage here, folks!
Could the attack simply have been because they were in a bad area and stood out, and not be rooted in people group (race)? (could be naive, or could be paranoid, depends on your point of view).
I'm certain the gangbangers don't give a damn about "outrage".
What about the L.A. Times, the only media outlet (out of the few that even reported on this story at all) to publicly state the witness's full name with NO thoughts toward her safety?
I thought we WANTED decent black people to have the courage to testify against black criminals? Now we have a black man who heroically saved these women's lives, and this witness who tried to help them after the fact and stood up to grilling by multiple, coordinated attorneys, and yet the Los Angeles Times felt it was important to repeat this young witness's name as many times as they could in their articles on the subject.
Nor was the attack by police officers or others who are supposed to uphold the law. Instead it was by apparent gang members, who are stereotypically supposed to be violent. Thus, again, it is not something out of the ordinary.
the times is acting as if they WANT something to happen to the witness - so they can sell papers.
Some of us have been following the crime since it was first reported. Please follow some of the links earlier in the thread for more info on this crime.
Some police officers have said this type of crime is almost unheard of. We know of one recent mob attack (also by black perps, as it turns out) in Las Vegas like this, last summer.
Some of us think this is definitely news, of great interest sociologically, and a very good benchmark to measure the fruits of political correctness, where hate crimes are of national importance but only if whites are the perps.
Why on earth was this story relegated to chat?
Are you not familiar with the story?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747488/posts
3 white college girls beaten severely by a black mob of a dozen chanting racial slurs, one may lose sight in an eye, lost most of her teeth and had more than a dozen broken bones in her face. Several incidents of gangs intimidating witnesses, a lawyer forces one witness to describe her car in court and a day later that witness's car is totaled by gang members as an intimidation act.
Plus the fact that the national media has ignored this story even though if it were a white gang attacking black girls the coverage would be neverending. Given how much nat'l news has been devoted lately to Michael Richards, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton (wedding shooting), the lack of coverage on this is a story in and of itself. The media double-standard for hate crimes is certainly political.
No deaths yet. The media and the Court sure seem to be facilitating the targeting of the witness.
This neighborhood is mixed and upscale. Homes are around $700K to $2mil. I was out trick-or-treating with my little kids not too far from this, though we got back by 8:30 and this attack happened around 9:30.
I would SO like to think this were not race related, but even the police have said it was wholly unprovoked by these girls, and many heard the racial taunts by these black youths as they started to pelt the girls with objects.
I am with you on the outrage. The bravery of the witnesses especially this young woman really says something about character. If they need 24 hr protection give it to them!
They will probably all be released to search for the real perpetrators.
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