Pubdate: Tue, 21 Jan 2003
Source: Alameda Times-Star (CA)
Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.timesstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/731
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

RENEGADE 'RIDERS' OFFICERS CALLED HIGH PRODUCERS

"You familiar with a company named Enron?" Assistant District Attorney 
David Hollister at one point asked after Hayter went on to describe 
Mabanag, Hornung and Siapno as motivated cops who undertook "directed 
patrol" missions to fight crime. Hollister suggested that the former police 
sergeant was blinded by the officers' trickery, just as the public was by 
Enron's executives.

Hollister asked Hayter about six incidents that took place in a three-week 
span that summer, including the detention of several men who needed medical 
treatment and the shooting of a pit bull terrier between the eyes in the 
back yard of a suspected drug house.

Asked whether the series of events should have raised suspicions, Hayter 
acknowledged that "in a short time, that could be a spike."

Hollister honed in on a night Siapno and purported Riders leader Frank 
Vazquez arrested Delphine Allen.

In his testimony, Allen had said he was falsely accused of possessing crack 
cocaine, then taken by Vazquez and Siapno to a freeway underpass for a beating.

Allen's mother had called police to complain her son was being drubbed by 
cops. Police dispatchers notified the supervising sergeant, Hayter, who 
went to check on the arrest.

Hayter described leaning into a police car and speaking privately with 
Allen, who only had a bump on his forehead. Hayter said he looked around 
"360 degrees" and was certain no officers were nearby to intimidate Allen 
during their conversation.

Hayter said Allen backed the arrest report, which blamed the injuries on 
his being tackled while trying to run away and from rapping his head 
angrily against a partition dividing the front and back of the patrol car.

On the witness stand, Allen testified his written statement in the report 
was false and that officers glared at him menacingly over Hayter's shoulder 
to insure he didn't speak the truth.

"When he started to talk, didn't you cut him off and show him his 
statement?" Hollister said.

"I believe I gave him the chance to tell me what happened," a soft-spoken 
Hayter replied.

Keith Batt, the police rookie who blew the whistle on the Riders in July 
2000, has echoed Allen's description of the scene with Hayter.

Hollister confronted Hayter with a report written by American Medical 
Response paramedics, who treated Allen before the sergeant arrived. Allen's 
right eye was swollen shut and the area around it bruised, the paramedics 
indicated.

"The best I remember is some swelling on the forehead," Hayter maintained. 
Hayter said he ordered officers to have photographs taken of Allen's wounds 
for a "use of force report." The order was not carried out.

When Sgt. Barney Rivera complained that Hayter's officers had "burned" an 
undercover van by hopping out of it and grabbing suspected drug dealers 
from street corners, Hayter dismissed Rivera's complaint as jealousy.

"I thought he was jealous of the number of arrests, because my officers 
were doing a more effective job," Hayter said. "Barney Rivera was upset my 
guys were showing his up."

Shortly after the Riders probe was launched, rookie Officer Steve Hewison 
told Hayter he had been coaxed by Mabanag into framing a suspected drug 
dealer in a bogus police report.

Hayter testified he told Hewison to inform the Alameda County District 
Attorney's Office.

Hewison, however, testified that Hayter advised him to confide in 
prosecutors if the case went to trial, which it didn't. The falsely accused 
man pleaded guilty in a deal that kept him out of jail.

"Hindsight being what it is, I wasn't specific enough," Hayter said, "I 
don't believe I told him to go up that day. I probably should have."

Hayter said he alerted a captain, Ralph Lacer, about Hewison's story within 
days. Lacer remembers things differently.

Hayter was stripped of his sergeant's rank as a result of the Riders 
scandal. He also was booted off the Special Weapons and Tactics team.

"I don't believe it was fair," Hayter said of his punishment. "They told me 
I didn't supervise properly and I was untruthful."

Hayter is appealing his demotion, and the matter is before an arbitrator.