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Published on 12/25/1995 All articles from this issue

Los Altos police officer exonerated by FBI

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos Police Chief Lucy Carlton announced Dec. 14 that the FBI investigation into allegations of excessive force by a Los Altos police officer found no civil rights violations.

"We have been completely exonerated by the FBI," Carlton said. "The letter from the justice department said, 'This matter should be closed...This Department has no intention of taking any further action.'"

This incident began July 22 when a Los Altos police officer stopped Hugo Hauser, a 66-year-old Mountain View man, for traveling 50 mph in a 35 mph near Foothill Expressway and Magdalena Ave.

Hauser spit at the officer, opened the car door and began swinging, said Los Altos Police Capt. Jerry Little. Then the officer used pepper spray and his baton to subdue Hauser, the officer wrote in the police report.

The district attorney filed criminal charges against Hauser of battery, resisting arrest and obstructing an officer. Hauser filed a complaint against the Los Altos Police department alleging excessive force.

Carlton ordered an internal investigation and also invited in the FBI to do an independent investigation.

At a court appearance Nov. 13, Judge Gilbert Brown announced that after a review of the personnel records of the officer involved, there was no history of excessive force or any complaints against the officer.

The district attorney is prosecuting the criminal case against Hauser for attacking the officer. Last Friday the parties were meeting in court for the judge to set a trial date.

"We intend to try this case," said assistant district attorney Rob McCauley.