SALINAS MAYOR BACKS EX-S.J. OFFICER
CITY UNLIKELY TO RETHINK DECISION TO HIRE OFFICER ACCUSED OF BRUTALITY IN CLAIM SETTLED TUESDAY

San Jose Mercury News (CA)
February 27, 2003
Section: Local
Edition: Northern California
Page: 1B
Memo:ALSO RAN: page 1B, Morning Final edition
Mercury News Staff Writer Mike Zapler contributed to this report.
DAVID L. BECK, Mercury News

The attorney for Aaron Rivera, who settled his police brutality lawsuit against San Jose on the day the trial was to begin, said Wednesday that Rivera's ''unbelievably wonderful recovery'' was a factor in his willingness to accept the city's $390,000 offer.

The mayor of Salinas, where the former San Jose officer accused in the suit now works, said her city is unlikely to reconsider its decision to add him to its police force.

In the Rivera case and two others that marked Robert Reichert's stormy decade on the San Jose force, ''He was cleared,'' Mayor Anna Caballero said.

Rivera, now 23 and a Hayward auto salesman, was in San Jose for a Cinco de Mayo celebration four years ago when his skull was fractured and his arm broken by Reichert's police baton. Police said Rivera was a suspect in a theft, had a long metal pipe and was fighting them. He denied fighting, the pipe was never found and he was never charged with theft.

He brought a federal civil rights action against Reichert and the city that had reached the stage of pre-trial motions when Rivera and the city agreed to settle.

''The plaintiffs were demanding huge dollars,'' said City Attorney Rick Doyle, ''and there wasn't any realistic expectation until the eve of the trial that we could settle the case.''

The settlement was among the largest in San Jose involving police misconduct, though not the largest. Doyle said the city paid $750,000 to a man shot during a 1982 traffic stop by the city and the California Highway Patrol. CHP paid the man an additional $950,000. And two years ago, the city paid $500,000 to Carl Simpson, who claimed that San Jose park rangers and a police officer illegally searched his van.

''These cases are very rare,'' Doyle said.

Rivera's attorney, Randall Scarlett of San Francisco, said he was confident his medical evidence, including X-rays and brain scans, would have persuaded the jury had the case gone to trial.

''But we weren't going to overreach here,'' he said. ''I'd rather have a healthy, well-recovered client than a great lawsuit.'' The $390,000 settlement includes $53,000 in medical fees and $3,000 in lost wages, as well as Scarlett's fee, which he declined to name.

Had Rivera made a less successful recovery, said Scarlett, the settlement would have had to be much higher. ''If they're not talking seven figures, we're out of here and let's leave it to a jury,'' he said.

The Rivera incident was Reichert's second high-profile one with the San Jose force. In 1997 he shot and killed an armed motorist on Capitol Expressway. The police internal investigation exonerated Reichert, determining that the motorist was drunk and appeared to be reaching for his gun.

Reichert resigned from the force last March after being accused of threatening a prisoner in Santa Clara County Jail. The prisoner, DeShawn Campbell, was accused of killing another San Jose officer and is still awaiting trial.

The district attorney's office found nothing illegal in what Reichert might have said -- the exact words of the alleged threat were in dispute. Although his conduct was unprofessional, Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu said, ''there's a big difference between unprofessional and illegal.''

Reichert was hired by Salinas last July after what Capt. Rick Moore, head of the Salinas police investigation unit, said was a full investigation. The ultimate decision to hire him was made by the Salinas chief, Daniel M. Ortega, who is away until next week and was not available for comment Wednesday.

Ortega was a deputy chief in San Jose when he was hired by Salinas, and Moore said Ortega probably knew Reichert there. But, ''I sincerely doubt that'' the chief cut his former colleague any slack in the hiring process, Moore said.

''We've had no issues with his performance here,'' he said.

Caballero said the hiring process was rigorous -- ''probably more rigorous'' because Reichert was coming from another police department and already had a work history -- and included a psychological examination and a polygraph test.

''He answered truthfully,'' she said.

''The chief also looked at internal investigative reports,'' Caballero said. ''My guess is the chief would not need to look at it again.''

Copyright (c) 2003 San Jose Mercury News