New York Times Search All NYTimes Go Archives Los Angeles Police Differ Sharply With Prosecutors on Arrest Totals By JANE FRITSCH, Published: May 10, 1992 EMAIL PRINT Reflecting the confusion that has characterized this citys response to the violence that broke out 10 days ago, prosecutors and the police are giving widely different estimates of the number of riot-related arrests. Police officials said today that they had arrested 18,000 people from Wednesday night, April 29, the day the riots began, through this morning. But prosecutors said they could not account for as many as 10,000 of those people. We dont know where these people are, said James K. Hahn, the Los Angeles City Attorney. It is a mystery to a lot of people in the system right now. Difficult Job Ahead Prosecutors said they had finished the initial processing of all those arrested during the riots, and only about 8,000 defendants had come through the courts. The police said they could not explain the discrepancy, but they stood by their number. Whatever the case, prosecutors anticipate unusual difficulties in proving the charges against the thousands of defendants arrested by harried police officers amid the chaos of the riots, in which more than 50 people were killed and hundreds of businesses were looted and burned. Following a week of calm, Federal troops, held in staging areas in Southern California, were awaiting orders today to return home. Deputy Hal Grant of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said the previous night had been quiet, with only routine police calls. Deputy Grant said the total of riot-related arrests reached 18,213 as police continued to search for and arrest people found in possession of property stolen during the rioting. He said the arrest figure was compiled from a number of sources, including the Los Angeles Police Department and from smaller cities in Los Angeles County. But the number of arrests in recent days has been small compared with the thousands of people rounded up by police during the height of the violence last week. Like Traffic Tickets Ira Reiner, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, said Friday that there had been only about 7,000 riot-related arrests, including 3,000 for felonies and 2,100 for misdemeanors. Mr. Reiner said that at least 2,000 people included in the police arrest total were apparently only cited by police officers and let go at the scene. Its like getting a traffic ticket, said Mr. Hahn, the city attorney, whose office prosecutes misdemeanors. Mr. Hahn said he had received no paperwork on those cases from the police, who would assign the defendants court dates on the spot before releasing them on their own recognizance. If theres suddenly going to be a thousand people coming into court on the same day, we need to know, Mr. Hahn said. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said Friday that the department was still trying to catch up on its paperwork and it was not clear how many, if any, of those arrested during the violence were let go after being stopped and cited by the police. That procedure been criticized by some local officials who fear that those involved in the violence might get off too lightly. Call for Tough Prosecution If it was any more than violating curfew early in the evening, they should have been arrested, said Joan Milke Flores, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, who has proposed legislation to stiffen penalties for crimes committed during rioting. Mrs. Flores criticized what she viewed as overly lenient sentences handed out by judges over the last week as hundreds of those arrested pleaded guilty to riot-related charges and were sentenced to the time they had already served in jail, usually two to four days. It bothers me that these looters and burglars are going to be right back out on the streets when the National Guard leaves, Mrs. Flores said. Mr. Hahn said he, too, was unhappy with some of the sentences handed out. A partial review of the cases, he said, indicated that 15 to 18 percent of those arrested were convicted felons on parole or probation. Mr. Hahn said judges consistently ignored his offices requests for minimum 90-day sentences for looters, often ordering the defendants to 30 days in jail or less. In one case, a person caught carrying a can of kerosene during the riots was charged with violating the curfew, the only charge available, and was released almost immediately after pleading guilty, Mr. Hahn said. That was all we could really prove, he said. Mr. Hahn predicted significant difficulty in proving cases against the hundreds of defendants who pleaded not guilty and requested trials.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:02:24 +0000
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