Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jul 2003
Source: Plain Dealer, The (OH)
Copyright: 2003 The Plain Dealer
Contact:  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Author: John Caniglia, Plain Dealer Reporter

VIDEOTAPED ARREST IN WARREN DRAWS FEDERAL SCRUTINY

Warren- As the video plays, Lyndal Kimble flails around in the
crabgrass of his front yard with three white cops on his back.

In a span of minutes, two knees slam into the face and chest of the
slender, 6-foot-tall black man. Several fists pummel his ribs. And
finally, after he is slammed to the ground, six squirts of pepper
spray singe his face.

"I felt like I was dying," he said last week, reflecting on an arrest
that catapulted him and his hometown into the national spotlight.

Warren police said they weren't trying to hurt Kimble; they were
trying to save him.

They said they saw Kimble, a convicted drug dealer, hide crack cocaine
in his mouth, and they feared he could overdose if they didn't grab
the drug. In a similar arrest in nearby Austintown, a man had
overdosed from swallowing drugs in front of officers.

And the patrolmen say that once Kimble resisted, they had no
choice.

"These guys were damned if they did and damned if they didn't," said
Police Chief John Mandopoulos. "I admit that this didn't look very
pretty, but the officers were trying to control the man. If he had
just listened, this wouldn't have happened."

But many minorities in Warren, a working-class city of 46,000 where
one out of every four people is black, fear a pattern has developed.
They believe the city could become like Canton and Cincinnati, where
white officers' arrests of blacks led to racial violence.

Warren Urban League President Thomas Conley has called for an
investigation of the Police Department, and he is pushing for a
citizens review board, which Cincinnati and other major cities adopted
to look at police complaints and quell angry residents.

Kimble's allegations of excessive force are different from others in the
city 70 miles east of Cleveland: After Kimble pulled into his driveway June
28, a neighbor recorded the arrest on his video camera.

And now the world is watching, and the FBI is investigating.

The case highlights a problem that some activists say has existed in
Warren for years: police harassing blacks.

"These people feel like their dignity has been stripped," said Richard
Olivito, Kimble's lawyer.

"They feel like they have been treated less than human."

Kimble is the third black person in four months to accuse police of
excessive force. The others include a 14-year-old girl who alleged
that she was slammed into a car so hard by an officer that she dented
the vehicle. Another man says he was beaten in the basement of his
girlfriend's home during an arrest.

Last year, the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Justice
Department worked with city leaders and police to end friction between
officers and blacks.

"The community needs to be educated on how to react and what to do
when approached by police," said a letter of understanding signed by
city, police and community leaders. "Individuals are intimidated and
scared to file complaints against police. Solutions need to be found
to remedy this fear."

Warren has 71 officers; eight are black. Activists have urged the
hiring of more minorities.

Mandopoulos defended his department, saying his officers have been
singled out in a city that has suffered through heavy economic
struggles that trace to the closing of steel mills in the 1980s. And
since they are on the front lines each day, they are easy targets, he
said.

"There are people with political motives who want my lunch box," he
said.

Mandopoulos said he will cooperate with the FBI. But he declined to
place any of the officers involved in Kimble's arrest on leave.

"Why should I? They didn't do anything wrong," he said.

In addition to the videotape, interviews with Kimble and his lawyers
and with police indicate the arrest took place like this:

On the morning of June 28, Kimble visited his brother, who lived a few
streets away. Shortly after 12:40 p.m., Kimble pulled his white
Cadillac onto Niles Road on the city's southeast side and drove a few
blocks to Kenilworth Ave., turning right. As he turned, he failed to
use his signal.

He drove less than a block and turned into the driveway of his
two-story home.

Police officers Gregory Hoso, 35, and Frank Tempesta, 23, pulled up
because Kimble had been driving erratically. Hoso asked for Kimble's
license. Kimble reached for the glove compartment and put something in
his mouth, which officers believed was cocaine.

Told to spit out what he had in his mouth, Kimble refused. The
officers then pulled him from the car.

He again refused to spit out what was in his mouth, and officers tried
to handcuff him.

As the debate wore on, Kimble's neighbor, Lionel Hughley, picked up a
video camera and began taping the arrest from the porch of his home,
just down from Kimble's home.

After a few moments of talk, rookie officer Tempesta came up from
behind Kimble, lifted him and slammed him on his left shoulder. Hoso
and Tempesta, along with Patrolman Michael Stabile, tried to subdue
Kimble. As Kimble was on the ground, the officers punched him. As two
of the officers held Kimble, the third kneed him in the face. The
officers then fired several shots of pepper spray into Kimble's face.

As the struggle continued, Johnnelle Price, who lives across the
street from Kimble, called 9-1-1, screaming.

"I need an ambulance," Price told a dispatcher. "We have cops beating
the hell out of a black guy. This is not called for. This is bad."

She hung up, and she began to shake. Her back cramped; her heart
raced.

She said she feared her neighbor was about to die.

Finally, after more than three minutes, the officers handcuffed
Kimble.

As he was still on the ground, Hoso jammed his right knee into
Kimble's chest, knocking the man off balance.

When officers placed Kimble in the patrol car, he apologized for his
behavior. To police, the words signified Kimble's realization of what
he did. Kimble said he apologized to get the officers' sympathy so
they would get him medical attention.

He was taken to a hospital for his injuries. Police also say his
stomach was pumped and cocaine was found.

Kimble said he hurt his shoulder in the arrest and that more tests are
needed. Hoso suffered a broken arm.

Officers also seized $2,000 from Kimble, who is unemployed.

Kimble has asked for an investigation of Hoso and the other police
officers.

"They went over the line," said Kimble's other lawyer, Sarah Thomas
Kovoor, a former assistant county prosecutor in Warren. "There are
always allegations against police going over the line, but this is on
video. This is black and white."

"In this town, every young African-American male has had a run-in with
Hoso," she said.

Kimble said he has had problems with Hoso and other officers
before.

Kimble was convicted of trafficking in crack cocaine in May 2000 and
placed on probation. He said he also was convicted 13 times for
criminal trespassing, charges that stemmed from visiting his family in
a public-housing development where felons are prohibited.

In the current case, he has been charged with resisting arrest,
possessing drugs, assaulting an officer and tampering with evidence.

Mandopoulos portrayed Hoso as a good officer.

"I admit that he will never shy away from his duties, but he is not
some sadistic guy who goes around beating people," the chief said.
"For years, he worked in public housing, and he made arrests, and some
people didn't like that."

He predicted his department will be cleared.

"We were the ones who were body-slammed in this," the chief said. "And
we will disprove every allegation."

But Kimble believes the way the officers treated him is
criminal.

"I want them to go to jail. Absolutely," he said.

"They hurt me badly, and if I hurt them like that, I would be headed
to jail. This wasn't an ordinary arrest. They wanted to get me."
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