Pubdate: Fri, 21 Dec 2012
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Joel Rubin
Page: A1

PROBE OF KILLING HOBBLED BY DEA

The Agency Refuses to Cooperate With LAPD Investigators in the 'Blunt 
Force' Death of a Suspect in Custody.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has refused for more than 
two years to allow its agents to cooperate with a Los Angeles Police 
Department investigation into the death of a drug suspect shortly 
after he was arrested in a DEA operation, according to LAPD records.

The LAPD's homicide investigation has effectively stalled, and 
officials said in documents reviewed by The Times that without 
assistance from the DEA they cannot determine how the man's fatal 
injuries were inf licted.

An autopsy found that the suspect's ribs had been fractured in 21 
places and coroner's officials concluded that the injuries were 
caused by "blunt force." The fractures led to internal bleeding, 
which ultimately killed the man, the coroner found.

The LAPD believes DEA agents may have caused the injuries when they 
placed the suspect on his stomach while handcuffing him, according to 
the documents. But without being able to interview the DEA agents who 
made the arrest, it's impossible for the detectives to determine 
whether the excessive force was used.

Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the DEA, said the U.S. Justice 
Department's own Office of the Inspector General is conducting an 
investigation into the death to determine whether DEA agents broke 
federal civil rights laws by using excessive force when arresting the 
man. Dearden said the DEA has provided the LAPD with some information 
and documentation about the incident.

"However, it is not uncommon for an agent under multiple ongoing 
investigations to decline specific law enforcement interviews until 
an inspector general investigation is completed," she said.

LAPD officials said they need to conduct their own homicide 
investigation. Chief Charlie Beck outlined the department's struggles 
with the case in a report recently submitted to the L.A. Police 
Commission. Beck reports to the civilian panel on all serious 
use-of-force cases and in-custody deaths.

Beck wrote that his detectives had made "numerous requests" to the 
DEA for interviews with the involved agents but have repeatedly "been 
met with negative results."

The incident began on a July night in 2010 in a parking lot a few 
blocks from Hollywood Boulevard. For months, DEA special agents had 
been working the area to arrest drug dealers and gang members, 
according to the report. On this night, an informant working with the 
DEA had arranged to meet two suspected dealers to purchase 10 ounces 
of crystal methamphetamine, the report said.

The informant, wired with a hidden microphone, approached the 
suspects' car and received the drugs from Alberto Arriaga, who 
remained in the passenger seat throughout the exchange. Drug agents 
moved in and are believed to have pulled Arriaga from the car, laid 
him face down on the pavement and handcuffed him, according to the LAPD report.

Eventually, officers from the LAPD were called in to take Arriaga and 
the other suspect to a nearby station to be booked, the report said. 
A station supervisor asked the men if they had any medical issues. 
Arriaga complained of leg pain from a previous injury but mentioned 
nothing else, the report found. The men were then placed in a holding 
cell together.

Sometime later that night, after the booking process had been 
completed, detention officers tried to move Arriaga, 45, to another 
jail facility. He told the jailers he was having abdominal pain "and 
had been beaten up by the DEA agents who arrested him," the report 
said. Arriaga was taken by ambulance to Hollywood Presbyterian 
Hospital. There, according to coroner's records, he waited 16 hours 
without receiving medical attention despite his worsening condition 
and then died.

The coroner's autopsy revealed that Arriaga's fractured ribs had 
caused internal bleeding in his chest that led to respiratory 
failure. Because the ribs had been broken by "blunt force injuries" 
that came from the back, the coroner classified the death as a homicide.

The exam also found that Arriaga had cirrhosis of the liver, a 
condition that can impair the blood's ability to clot and so could 
have exacerbated the internal bleeding.

As it does with all in-custody deaths and cases involving serious 
force by officers, the LAPD deployed a team of specialized 
investigators to look into Arriaga's death. Such investigations 
typically focus on LAPD officers and determine if they violated any 
department rules or committed any crimes.

However, the Arriaga case was complicated. Pursuing the theory that 
Arriaga's ribs were broken while he was being taken into custody, the 
investigators found that no LAPD officers had been involved in the 
arrest or even had been present to witness it.

An LAPD detective who had been briefed on the arrest by a DEA agent 
told investigators he had learned that Arriaga "was not cooperative 
in coming out of the vehicle, was subsequently pulled out of the 
vehicle and then placed on the ground," according to the LAPD report.

The report concluded that Arriaga's wounds were not inflicted by LAPD 
officers when he was custody - a finding corroborated by the Police 
Commission. The report did not address whether he could have been 
beaten by a fellow inmate but noted that the department is working to 
have better video surveillance of the lockup facilities.

The investigators asked the DEA repeatedly for permission to 
interview the agents involved in the arrest, but were rebuffed, 
according to the report.

At first DEA officials told the LAPD that the agents needed some time 
to find attorneys who would accompany them.

Then, once legal counsel was arranged, the DEA said the interviews 
would have to wait until after Arriaga's autopsy results were 
completed, which occurred a short time later. Still, the agency did 
not make the agents available.

Frustrated by the DEA's inaction, LAPD investigators went for 
assistance to local prosecutors in the district attorney's office, 
who concluded they did not have the authority to compel federal 
agents to cooperate with a local police department's investigation.

Several months later, the LAPD turned to U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte for 
help getting the agents to talk. According to Beck's report, agents 
from Birotte's Los Angeles office agreed to conduct the interviews 
with the DEA agents. Those interviews were put on hold, however, and 
have never occurred.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom