On
March 30, 1978, the father of a 16-year old black boy beaten by police brought
charges against the cops involved in the beating. Witnesses, twelve neighbors, saw four
officers beat the child with batons about the head. He was later taken to the hospital and
treated.
Fairfax
County Police Chief Col. Richard A. King dismissed the charges of brutality
against his police based on an investigation of the incident…..by the police
who…wait for it….found the police innocent of using "excessive physical
force" Brutality charges against the other two arresting cops were
dismissed without a trial board hearing because of insufficient evidence.
King
said that "in the process of arresting (The boy), the officers resorted to
force, which required that (The boy) be given medical treatment.” King did not release a police version of why
the child was injured during the arrest, and he refused comment on how the
decision was made to drop charges against the cops because all findings of the
police department's internal affairs section are not public information.
He
asked that the public "have a little faith" in the integrity of his
police force and said that he was breaking a precedent for the county police by
publicizing internal affairs action. He
said the announcement was made to "assure the public that we do an in-depth
investigation”.
At
the time, three of the five other major police departments in the Washington
area made public the findings of police trial boards, which usually are three
or four persons panels made up of police officers or citizens. King said he opposed the release of all trial
board findings because of his feeling that internal affairs information
"in general" should be kept secret.
The
Board of supervisor said and did nothing.
But
on June 3, 1978, a federal grand jury was ordered to look into the beating of
the 16-year-old by police. The
investigation was to determine if the police department tried to cover up the
incident.
The
same grand jury also started to investigate the county's internal police review
board, an all-cop agency that reviewed charges against the Fairfax cops. The jury was investigating what the chief of
police said was a minor incident in which a cop "roughly handcuffed and
put a suspect into a squad car”, King said.
"The incident involved the use of a foot.”
But
then added he couldn’t remember all the details of the incident, Actually the
charges resulted in the cop being suspended for 10 days without pay. Why he wasn’t arrested for assault isn’t
known. They were also investigating
another case that involved “the unwarranted firing of guns” which resulted in
two days off with pay for the two cops involved. "We do react to complaints. We do react in a positive manner," King
said. "Obviously, not all
complaints are valid”