Officer Morse
On this date in 2003 in Los Angeles, a Superior Court judge declared a deadlocked jury in a police brutality case against a white former officer, which was dismissed. During a videotaped arrest, Inglewood Officer Jeremy Morse punched and slammed Donovan Jackson, a handcuffed Black teenager, onto a squad car. The jury deliberated for more than three days without reaching a verdict.
This case raised racial tensions and drew comparisons to the Rodney King beating in the same city. Morse, 25, the former Inglewood police officer accused of assault, could have received up to three years in prison if convicted. His partner, Bijan Darvish, 26, was found innocent of falsifying a police report in the incident at a gas station in Inglewood, a city south of Los Angeles. Darvish and his attorney banged their fists on the counsel table and breathed, "Yes" as the verdicts were read. Morse sat expressionless with his hands locked.
Someone in the courtroom yelled, "There is no justice here!" and was silenced by Superior Court Judge William Hollingsworth, Jr. Later, the police sued the city, arguing that they were discriminated against because they were white. On January 18, the day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, a Superior Court jury gave $2.4 million to the two officers.
