On
October 14, 1979, a judge dismissed all charges against members of the Rickman
family who were involved in a scuffle with the cops. The judge also criticized two cops and in
throwing out the case said d he could not find "one scintilla of evidence"
to support the initial drunk driving charge that prompted the incident. The family said that the two cops who
arrested Rickman attacked them without provocation in their own front
yard.
According
to witnesses, on August 10 year-old Timothy Rickman allegedly flashed his
lights and honked his horn at a patrol car.
The cop followed Rickman into the family's driveway and started a fight
with him when Rickman allegedly refused to be questioned and called for
help. The cop called for
reinforcements.
Rickman
was charged with drunk driving and assault and obstruction of justice and
assault charges were brought against his father, his mother Arlene, and his
stepbrother. "They ought to put
both (officers) behind the desk. Neither
one of them are ready to work in the street," Arlene Rickman said “I couldn't
expect much punishment even if they found them guilty. I'm surprised they're doing this much. This is like a police state . . . and they
really protect their own," she said.
On
the lighter side, the police said its internal affairs section, the department
charged with protecting the image of the police, was going to investigate the
case. Remarkably, and I know this is
hard to believe but the department cleared one of the cops involved and
transferred another.
Even
the chief of police noted that the cop "not really being punished, just
reassigned" Unfortunately for the cops the FBI opened an investigation
into the case looking into possible use of excessive force.