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Clinton’s attorney to ask for dismissal
by Robb Fulcher
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Roger Clinton is booked at the Hermosa police station Feb. 17. |
Roger Clinton’s attorney said he will ask a judge to dismiss charges of driving under the influence and disturbing the peace, and he stepped up claims that the former president’s half-brother was targeted for arrest by Hermosa police.
Police have denied that charge, saying the officer who stopped Clinton’s Ford Expedition Feb. 17 did not know that Clinton was behind the wheel.
Speaking on CNN’s "Larry King Live" television show Monday, attorney Mark Geragos repeated claims that police followed Clinton and arrested him Feb. 17 to "make a famous pinch."
"That’s their way of getting their notoriety," Geragos said. "He was not drunk at all, he was not under the influence at all, and he didn’t do anything to get pulled over."
In a continuing give and take over Clinton’s arrest, Geragos said police identified Clinton’s vehicle by its license plate number 20 minutes before the arrest occurred.
Hermosa Beach Police Officer Paul Wolcott, the department’s spokesman, denied the charge.
"That would be a lie," Wolcott said in an interview. He released a tape of radio traffic between officers on the night of the arrest, and a license plate check of Clinton’s vehicle was not heard prior to the traffic stop.
Geragos has used part of the tape to demonstrate that officers on patrol at the Pier Plaza recognized Clinton after they shooed him away from the Lighthouse Café, where he allegedly caused a disturbance while trying to get back inside the establishment after it had closed.
Wolcott said that police on the plaza knew that Clinton was there, but the officer who pulled him over 33 minutes later did not.
Wolcott said officers at the Lighthouse recognized Clinton and radioed officers at the eastern end of the plaza, where Clinton was headed. Wolcott said that was done to make sure that no further trouble would occur.
The tape contained the following communication:
"The subject that was causing the [disturbance] at the Lighthouse is wearing a blue denim jacket. He should be walking eastbound Pier Avenue. Take a look at him," Officer Raul Saldana said.
"Does he have secret service protection?" Wolcott said.
"Not really, but his brother did," Saldana said.
Geragos said the officers were "joking" about Clinton. Wolcott said he asked whether Clinton had U.S. Secret Service protection in an attempt to find out "whether he had someone with him like a bodyguard, somebody who would want to keep him from getting into any more trouble."
Between the time Clinton left the plaza and his Expedition was stopped nearby, officers did not know or care where he was, Wolcott said.
He said the six officers on the plaza were kept busy patrolling and breaking up three fights over a nine-minute span. Another officer in a police car was busy making a traffic stop unrelated to Clinton and then issuing two citations in the city’s downtown parking structure, Wolcott said.
Clinton was stopped after he bumped a curb making a right turn, made a left turn after signaling to turn right, straddled the center line on two streets, stopped well over the limit line in two intersections and made two more left turns without signaling, Wolcott said.
The officer made the stop and then realized the driver was the same man who had allegedly caused the Lighthouse disturbance, Wolcott said. When the man showed his driver’s license the officer realized he was Roger Clinton, Wolcott said.
Geragos told King that Clinton and a passenger denied that any erratic driving occurred.
Clinton failed a field sobriety test, then was taken to the police station where he registered blood-alcohol levels of .08 and then .09 on a breath test, Wolcott said. Under California law a driver registering .08 is presumed to be impaired by alcohol.
Geragos told King that the breathalyzer result was not accurate, or might be "as rigged as everything else is."
"We believe the .08 may not even have been his test," Geragos said.
Clinton, 44, a Torrance resident, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His arrest came just over a month after he received a pardon from his presidential brother for a cocaine conviction, for which he served one year in prison. ER