COMPLAINT ACCUSES 20 POLICE OFFICERS OF EXCESSIVE FORCE; INTERNAL AFFAIRS CONFIRMS ONGOING INVESTIGATION

by Christine Smallwood November 2004 At least twenty police officers poured into an Hispanic neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia last April, punching, kicking, taunting and threatening at least six residents—including two 16-year-old boys—on their way to recovering one marijuana cigarette, according to criminal complaint filed in federal court on November 24. The alleged use of excessive force by unidentified officers, some from the 25th Police District and others from the narcotics squad, also is the subject of a wide-raging probe by the department's Internal Affairs division, Lieutenant Lorraine Fornier said. “There's a lot of officers involved,” Fornier said in a telephone interview on November 5. “I'm going to be bringing in probably about twenty to interview. It's a big complaint, and some of these can take a while,” she said. The lawsuit, to be filed on behalf of four of the alleged victims by attorney Derrick Howard, charges John Doe and Jane Doe officers, police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and the City of Philadelphia with federal civil-rights violations, assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, trespassing and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. It also accuses Johnson and the city of cultivating or tolerating a culture of police abuse. None of the officers was named in the complaint because the alleged victims weren't able to provide any names or badge numbers. The alleged victims were booked at the 25th, located at Luzerne and Erie streets. The district's commanding officer, Captain Bach Mayer, wasn't immediately available for comment. The police arrived an area loosely defined by Tampa, Tioga and Crystal streets on the afternoon of April 7, 2004. By the time they were gone, two 16-year-old boys had been taken to the hospital, while at least three others had bruises, scratches, and cuts. One other was verbally abused, the complaint states. Kenneth Ortiz, who turned 21 in October, said in the complaint that he had been standing outside his house when a dark-colored Ford Crown Victoria pulled up and let loose a group of officers with guns drawn. They ordered him to freeze. Ortiz said he was punched and slammed against his garage door, and the joint was confiscated. According to the nine-page complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Philadelphia Independent, Ortiz's arrest was witnessed by Arnando Delvalle, who turned 17 after the incident; his mother's boyfriend, David Ramirez, who was 25 that day; and a neighbor, Ruben Morales, who also has since turned 17. “We were standing on E Street,” Delvalle said in a telephone interview. “He (Ortiz) was being opposed by two officers, and one of the officers slammed him against the wall.” Then Ortiz's mother emerged from their house. “She was crying and asking why, and the officers showed her the joint, and then she cried and said, ‘My son is innocent.' When his mom was trying to calm (Ortiz) down, the officers were screaming in his face. Then I heard the officers scream at his mom's face,” Delvalle said. “Then I grabbed her and said everything is going to be okay, and then they locked him up,” Delvalle said. Delvalle, Ramirez and Morales, curious at the commotion, followed the officers toward Tampa Street. According to the complaint, they observed the street had several police cars and saw an unmarked, silver van circling the block. Delvalle said he mistook the van for a parcel-delivery truck and was uncomfortable at the way the driver, who was white, was looking at him. He gave the driver the finger, he said during the interview at Howard's office. “This is a Latino area, a lot of blacks, and when a white person comes here, it's to buy drugs. That's why Chino put his finger up,” his mother, Jeannette Delvalle, 36, said in a telephone interview, referring to her son by his nickname. The driver was a plainclothes officer who jumped from vehicle and grabbed Arnando Delvalle by the neck while another slammed the boy into a wall, the complaint says. Arnando Delvalle, who said he has asthma, was then forced to the ground by about eight officers, one of whom knelt on his neck while others stood on his hands and feet. Arnando Delvalle was dragged to a police car in handcuffs and brought to the 25th, then taken to the hospital and treated for an injury to his left leg, according to the complaint. While Arnando Delvalle was being arrested, the complaint alleges, officers yelled at Ramirez and Morales to leave, which Ramirez and Morales said they did. The two were about 25 feet away from the police, according to the complaint, when a female officer followed them and verbally harassed them. Ramirez said when got to his home on Crystal Street, a male officer approached the front door and was screaming at him. Ramirez said in an interview he assumed he was safe inside his own home and got into an argument with the officer. The unidentified male officer entered the house and pulled Ramirez out, the complaint states. Another officer joined the first and the two slammed Ramirez to the concrete. Morales, who was at Ramirez's door, also was taken down by officers. Ramirez was injured by at least two punches to the back of the head, and Morales ultimately took some stitches to the face, according to the suit. Close by, other officers were punching and harassing another neighbor, Antonio Gonzalez, 19. Gonzalez's mother, 36-year-old Anachelis Lucas, tried to intervene on her son's behalf. She was taunted, kicked and sustained an injury to her scalp as a result of hair being pulled out, according to the complaint. Lucas was handcuffed and taken to the 25th, where an unidentified black police officer approached her and told her she was removed from the scene because, according to the suit, “the defendant trainee officer wanted to fight.” Gonzalez received cuts and bruises. While at the 25th, Morales's photo ID was passed around by ``several” officers who laughed at the ID and ridiculed Morales, the complaint says. Arnando Delvalle, Morales and Ramirez were charged with disorderly conduct. Arnando Delvalle said in an interview he was signed into the precinct by an officer who hadn't harmed him, and said that one officer there gave his name as Steven Wallace, which turned out to be fake. Arnando Delvalle, Morales, Ramirez and Lucas filed a complaint with Internal Affairs the following day, April 8. They were interviewed on April 28, but the department hasn't yet questioned witnesses or any officers, Fornier, the Internal Affairs officer, said. Arnando Delvalle, Ramirez and others said the behavior of the police that spring day is routine. “It happens every day,” Arnando Delvalle said. “It won't stop ‘til a cop kills somebody. These cops are just out of control.” Ramirez agreed. “I see it so often. Eventually someone is going to get hurt really bad,” he said in an interview. The complaint demands a jury trial. “My clients want to be heard,” Howard said in an interview. “Police officers have a job to do. You shouldn't be victimized by the people who are supposed to protect you.” Arnando Delvalle and his family are selling their home and moving to a safer section of Juniata. Arnando Delvalle, who is working as a house painter, said he still has pain in his leg. Morales has pain in his right ear and continues to get headaches, according to the complaint. The suit says Johnson has “encouraged, tolerated, ratified and has been deliberately indifferent to” the alleged behavior and a larger pattern of the allegations. It accuses him of neglecting the need for more training, supervision and discipline. “[On April 7] they were like, ‘You welfare-living motherfucker!' They tell us all that stuff. We can't defend ourselves, because we get arrested for misconduct,” Jeanette Delvalle said in an interview. The complaint also accuses Johnson and the city of failing to identify, monitor or control officers known to be—or potentially known to be— “suffering from emotional and/or psychological problems that impaired their ability to function as police officers,” as well as officers who were the subject of prior civilian or internal disciplinary complaints. The city will have sixty days to respond once the complaint has been filed.