Verdict: Not guilty in Kelly Thomas case

Orange County Register ^ | Jan. 13, 2014 | LARRY WELBORN and VIK JOLLY

[South40]

The verdicts came after two years of hearings, recalled Fullerton city council members, a Police Department roiled by protests and firings.

SANTA ANA – A former policeman sat with his head bowed Monday as an Orange County jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of a homeless man during a 2011 encounter captured on videotape.

Manuel Anthony Ramos, who was a Fullerton police officer for 10 years, then clasped his hands, wiped tears from his eyes and hugged his attorney as the jury also found him not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Kelly Thomas.

Some of the more than 100 spectators cried when the verdicts were announced after seven hours of deliberations. But some – relatives, friends and supporters of Thomas – gasped. One spectator yelled “No!”

[fwdude]

The officers seemed awfully aggressive and unnecessarily combative in the initial contact. What reason could they have for having the homeless guy sit in a certain way?

Their pointless commands seemed to escalate the situation.

[South40]

Their pointless commands seemed to escalate the situation.

Indeed. As did the threats of physical harm.

"See these fists?.... They're getting ready to *#@& you up."

And they did.

[Sporke]

He had one cop grabbing his arm, another on his back. The only way he could breathe was by keeping his other arm under him, to keep his chest off the ground. Cops yell for him to put his hand behind his back, knowing he couldn’t do so.

The cops’ friends show up, and 6 of them commence to tasering him, beating him with a club and stun gun until he is unconscious and dying.

A death sentence, for loitering. :-/

[fwdude]

The few bad cops (and I do believe they are relatively few) bring disrepute to the entire profession. That’s why bad cops are to be especially severely dealt with.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

These cops should be taken out and beaten. This verdict is a travesty.

[TurboZamboni]

“Unexpected”- like the FBI finding the IRS did nothing criminal.

[TurboZamboni]

Only a handful of police officers nationwide have been charged with murder for actions taken while on duty, and convictions in those cases are rare, said Lawrence Rosenthal, a law professor at Chapman University School of Law and a former federal prosecutor. Unless the prosecution can prove the officers falsified reports or covered up evidence, jurors are usually willing to acquit, he said. "Police officers are very unusual kinds of defendants because ... they are seen as acting not in their own interests but acting to protect the public at large, the very people sitting on their jury," Rosenthal said. Jurors are willing to forgive lapses in judgment rather than put an officer "in the cage with the same people that officer has spent his life arresting," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/14/kelly-thomas-trial-officers-acquitted-in-homeless-man-death/?intcmp=latestnews

[arthurus]

" “They operated as they were trained ..."

That is surely the case down to the threats and the cursing.

[Uncle Chip]

Another case of morons on a jury —

[Wallace T.]

Orange County, California, is a conservative area. Likely as not, the jurors were old school “law ‘n’ order” types who cannot imagine police can do no wrong even when the evidence is overwhelming that they murdered this mentally ill man. This type of authoritarian masquerading as conservative is as dangerous to the country as the leftists.

[Uncle Chip]

Yep —

[chrisinoc]

Leo Terrell covered the trial for KABC radio and he thought the jury would find the Fullerton cops not guilty. He stated a turning point was when the assistant coroner, a witness for the prosecution, contradicted testimony by the chief coroner, also a witness for the prosecution.

The civil case, if filed, will be more interesting. It will pit the family of Kelly against the city and the fired cops, who likely will file a lawsuit against the city for wrongful termination.

[Forgotten Amendments]

I posted a few days ago that prosecutors have a way of accidentally-on-purpose doing stupid things to blow cases against their LE buddies. Then, the juries take the heat.

[South40]

I recently served on a jury involving a gang banger who, while in a work camp for criminals, joined in with 3 fellow gang members and jumped a rival. It was a simple case and 11 of us were ready to convict of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm. That decision was easy as all 4 punched and kicked the victim as hard as they could while he was down and did so until staff sprayed them with pepper spray. But that 12th juror would not join us because, as he put it, they were just trying to intimidate him.

Being a moron does not preclude someone from sitting on a jury. We see it all the time.

[Uncle Chip]

I posted this comment from the OC Register earlier on another thread — FWIW:

AlmostAjuror at 10:13 PM January 13, 2014

I was in the jury pool and was called to the jury box along with 16 others. After questioning by the attorneys two jurors were dismissed for cause. Then the attorneys started dismissing jurors with peremptory chalanges. I was the first one dismissed py the prosecution. I think only a few were dismissed before the jury was accepted.

I read the detailed reports of each day of the trial. I would not have voted not guilty on all charges. At the very least it was use of excessive force. I think the prosecution made a mistake by kicking me off the jury.

I would not have voted guilty on second degree murder.