Judge boots 'Riders' juror from retrial

Article Last Updated: 04/22/2005 04:37:54 AM


By Glenn Chapman, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND — The judge in the "Riders" police corruption retrial Thursday removed a juror apparently opposed to convicting three fired Oakland cops accused of framing and abusing suspected drug dealers in 2000.

After a morning of hearings in his chambers with rival attorneys, the accused men and two of the 12 jurors, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner dismissed Richard Callen from the panel.

Callen, 53, bade farewell to the bailiff and then strode from the courtroom. Indications during jury selection and deliberations, which began midafternoon April 5, were that Callen sided with lawyers defending former Oakland police Officers Matthew Hornung, Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag and Jude Siapno.

"I've been instructed
to keep my mouth shut," Callen told news reporters who approached him as he waited for an elevator. "And that's what I'm going to do."

Callen, whose style earned him the courtroom nickname "The Cowboy," declined to share his view of jury deliberations. Callen services vehicles at the Alameda County Water District, where his telephone answering machine greet-

ing ends with a snippet of the theme tune from the Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western film "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

Callen was first summoned to Horner's chambers for private discussions with the judge and attorneys Wednesday morning. While waiting alone in the jury box for attorneys to hash out legal matters in Horner's chambers, Callen grumbled aloud he had more to tell
the judge and then patted the chair to his left, saying "This is the one."

The woman who has occupied that jury seat throughout the trial works as an Alameda County Transit Authority bus driver and has not been summoned for questioning by the judge.

Callen has a son with cerebral palsy. A visit to the United Cerebral Palsy Web site Thursday revealed a discussion group posting beginning with, "Recently, I have had the opportunity to be on jury duty in Oakland."

The writer goes on to describe parking in the Alameda County garage two blocks from the Rene Davidson Courthouse in January and noticing a fellow juror, described as a bus driver, parked in a handicapped spot and using a handicap placard she acknowledged she borrowed


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from a friend.

The writer indicates he told the woman he had a similar placard registered to his son but wouldn't break the law by using it unless accompanied by his boy.

"Undeterred, she continued to use the placard for many days, until almost running into me as I walked across an empty handicap spot weeks later," the author wrote.

The author says he reported his concerns to the California Highway Patrol and urged that more be done to thwart fraudulent use of handicap placards.

While waiting in the jury box Wednesday, Callen ended his tapping of the juror's empty chair with a comment about having taken his concerns to the CHP.

Horner has issued a gag order for all involved with the case and has kept
jury notes and discussions about them confidential, making it difficult for courtroom observers to determine the status of deliberations and the reason for Callen's dismissal.

After Callen left, Horner summoned the rest of the panel and replaced Callen with a woman who has served as an alternate through the trial. It was nearing noon when Horner told the reconstituted jury they would have to put aside whatever progress they had made and begin deliberations anew.

Mabanag, 39, Siapno, 36, and Hornung, 33, are on trial for a combined 15 criminal charges stemming from accusations they were part of a cadre of rogue cops called Riders and lied in police reports to justify unfounded arrests of suspected drug dealers and to cover up brutal methods.
Defense lawyers have maintained the former officers are maligned soldiers who were devotedly fighting street crime with the sanction of department superiors.

The first Riders trial spanned more than a year. Deliberations lasted 56 days and ended in September 2003 with jurors acquitting the accused men of eight charges and deadlocked on the remaining counts.