Party Incident Revives Police Conduct Issue

Judy Pace Flood said all she wanted was to throw a safe party for her daughter Julia, who was returning to Howard University in Washington for her second year of study.

Safe, she said, meant an invitation-only, no-alcohol bash with security guards to keep things orderly at her home in picturesque Baldwin Vista Estates in southwest Los Angeles.

But that’s not the way it turned out, she said, at least not after more than two dozen police officers arrived and closed the party down.

The circumstances under which they came, and allegations about their behavior inside Flood’s house in a largely middle-class, African American section of the city, have rekindled old suspicions about police intrusiveness in black communities--charges that the Los Angeles Police Department has sought to dispel in recent years with an emphasis on “community-based policing.”

The July 12 incident, which is still under investigation by LAPD’s Internal Affairs Division, was sparked by a 911 call after midnight from a woman who reported seeing a fight and a man with a gun leaving the party, police sources said.

Southwest Division officers arriving at the house brought a television crew from a locally produced Spanish-language police show. They reported seeing more than 250 people in the house and on the street outside. No arrests were made.

Police refuse to discuss their conduct, citing the ongoing internal affairs investigation. But Flood, a former actress and widow of baseball great Curt Flood, said that there was no fight and no gun and that, although her nearly one-acre hilltop property can easily hold 250 people, there were only about 100 guests at the party.

She also questioned whether the incident was invented to give police an excuse to enter her property to give the video company dramatic footage.

“It was a setup for a theatrical event,” said Flood, still fuming months later in her lawyer’s office. “They thought they would find gang members in my house, but all they found was potato chips, Kool-Aid and college kids. It was an ideal evening, a beautiful party until the police arrived and invaded the sanctity of my home.

“They never rang my door, they never asked me to come out and talk,” she said. “They just walked in filming.” She said she repeatedly ordered the police to leave her property and told the camera crew, whom she said police identified as fellow officers, to stop filming.

The officers, Flood said, never made it clear why they were at her house. As they walked up to the property, they told a family friend that they were investigating reports of gunfire, but inside her house they told Flood the music was too loud.

“I told them that doesn’t track,” said Bill Brown, a family friend who was one of the adults at the party to help out. “When I said that, the sergeant said: ‘That’s it! You are not cooperating. We’re closing the party down.’ ”

*

Then, with a helicopter hovering overhead and officers standing around Flood’s pool deck, the sergeant gave the order to move the guests outside to their cars, Flood and several guests said. Flood said police prevented her from addressing the gathering over a disc jockey’s microphone. She was physically restrained by one officer, and her daughter was detained briefly in a police car, she said.

“I just can’t understand why the officers acted the way they did,” said Jamila Smith, an 18-year-old mass communications major at UC Berkeley who attended the party. “I’d like to think that this was not racial, but it’s hard not to.”

Flood’s attorney, Henry D. Gradstein, who lives in a predominantly white Pacific Palisades neighborhood, added: “If this were my neighborhood, it would never have happened. They ring the doorbell.” Gradstein is preparing a lawsuit against the city and the entertainment company.

The Internal Affairs Division is reviewing the TV crew’s videotape from the party, said Lt. Anthony Alba, a department spokesman. He said that media crews accompanying officers are normally not permitted to venture onto private property without the consent of the owners.

“Once someone indicates that they don’t want the media there, they should refrain from photographing,” he said. “But often it’s difficult for officers while working to turn their attention to the media.”

The two-member film crew that accompanied police the night of Flood’s party was videotaping a segment of “Placas,” a live police drama produced by Telemax Entertainment and shown locally on a Spanish-language network.

David Gonzales, the show’s field producer who entered Flood’s home, said he and his cameraman were permitted onto the property by party-goers. He blamed Flood for trying to incite the young crowd to violence once police arrived.

“It was a simple party call that turned bad,” he said. “The officers did what they were supposed to do, but it was hard to get a word in. She was screaming, calling them racists, saying she was going to get their jobs.”

Gonzales, who says he has logged more than 2,000 hours in police ride-alongs, said provocative actions by Flood are apparent on the videotape. But when a Times reporter asked to view it, he said he had turned it over to police.

“We thought they might need it,” he said. “She is a powerful woman.”

Police spokesman Alba also declined to let a reporter view the tape, saying it is part of the internal affairs investigation, but he maintained that it showed no officer misconduct. He requested that any witnesses who have not been interviewed by police contact internal affairs Capt. Lee Carter.

*

In the 12-month period ending in July, citizens filed 398 complaints against the LAPD, a 25% increase over the previous year. Alba said new Police Chief Bernard C. Parks plans to investigate the increase.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, who was contacted by Flood, said police should do a better job controlling video crews that ride with them.

“These cameras that chase these police events around town should be limited and strictly not be permitted onto people’s private property without permission or consent,” said Holden, who represents the adjacent council district. “The police are there to gather evidence, not TV camera crews.”