Slain Officer’s Peers Refuse to Aid Defense of the Suspect

The attorney for a man charged with killing a Los Angeles police officer complained Friday that he cannot get an investigator to assist in the defense because the retired law-enforcement officers he usually employs refuse to help defend a man accused of killing a policeman.

When interviewed, other former officers agreed, saying that acceptance of such a job could bring social ostracism from their peers. A former deputy police chief reacted by saying that any former officer “who attempts to help someone who murders a policeman is a prostitute.”

Attorney Robert D. Rentzer of Encino said he will file a motion next week in San Fernando Municipal Court seeking a Los Angeles County-approved investigator to help him prepare for the preliminary hearing of Thomas Lee Mixon, 19.

Mixon, of Los Angeles, is one of two teen-agers accused in the June 22 killing of Los Angeles Police Officer James H. Pagliotti in Sylmar.

Pagliotti died after a shoot-out in the Sylmar Square area with two youths he believed were engaged in a drug transaction. Police arrested Mixon and Louis Belvin Jr., 18, alleging that Belvin fired the shots that killed Pagliotti.

‘It’s a Conflict of Interest’

Mixon pleaded not guilty June 30 in San Fernando Municipal Court to charges of murder, assault, conspiracy to sell drugs and selling cocaine. Mixon’s preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for Aug. 25, but Rentzer said both sides will request a delay to allow more time for preparation.

Rentzer said several former police officers he frequently uses as investigators have refused to take the Mixon case.

“They’ve told me right up front that they don’t think they can be impartial in a case like this,” Rentzer said. “They ethically feel it’s a conflict of interest and they cannot put their hearts into the job.”

Rentzer, who was retained by the Mixon family, said he will ask the county to choose an investigator and pay the investigator’s salary. He would have requested county assistance in paying an investigator anyway, he said, because the family cannot afford the expense.

He probably will ask the court to pay some of his own fee, he said. The family has raised $700 for Mixon’s defense through donations from neighbors in South-Central Los Angeles, he said.

Wants Qualified Investigator

Rentzer said there probably are hundreds of private detectives who would be willing to take the Mixon case, but he does not want to choose one at random, reasoning that the court will come up with a better-qualified person.

“I don’t want to wind up with a second-rate investigator,” he said. “I’m not going to pick somebody from the Yellow Pages for a case of this magnitude. I want somebody who has credentials. I think I can get a better investigator off a county list than through a random selection.”

Bill Sands, a former sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Organized Crime Bureau, said he turned down the Mixon case because of his law-enforcement background and because his son is a Los Angeles police officer.

“I just felt that I wouldn’t be able to do a good job for Bob,” said Sands, who retired in 1983. “It’s because of my background, having been a policeman for 27 years. . . . I would have a little problem perhaps devoting my full energies to a client who is accused of killing another police officer.”

Sands said he has in the past worked as a background investigator on homicide, rape and other criminal cases.

‘I Wouldn’t Do That on a Bet’

But “in this particular instance, I didn’t feel comfortable with it. I don’t know whether he’s guilty, innocent or not,” Sands said of Mixon. “It’s just the fact that, in my personal feelings on the matter, I just would not be comfortable doing something like this.”

Bill Welch, a former North Hollywood homicide detective who now owns a Toluca Lake investigation firm, also refused to take the case.

“I wouldn’t do that on a bet. There’s just some things that you don’t do,” said Welch, a 21-year police veteran who retired three years ago. When any fellow officer is killed, he said, “I kind of take it to heart. That hits real close to home.”

Also, Welch added, “There’s no doubt that some of my old partners over the years would never talk to me again.”

Lt. Dan Cooke, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, noted that many private detectives are retired police officers, but said he has never heard of a similar case.

But, Cooke said, “I’m extremely proud of the former policemen for turning it down. It certainly shows their professionalism if there’s any thought of conflict of interest.”

Several officers and former officers said they too would refuse to help defend someone accused of killing a police officer.

“I wouldn’t take a part-time job trying to defend someone who murdered a fellow police officer,” said Bill Jordan, a homicide detective. “If the man is guilty, I don’t want him to get off scot-free, which would encourage others to take the life of a police officer.”

Dan Sullivan, a former deputy chief of the LAPD who now works for Paul Chamberlain International, a private investigation and consulting firm, said: “I wouldn’t lift a finger to help anybody who is involved in the murder of a policeman, and I think that any policeman who attempts to help someone who murders a policeman is a prostitute.”

But Rentzer criticized the officers for assuming that his client is guilty.

“I don’t think it’s fair and right to assume him guilty in this case when he wasn’t the shooter,” Rentzer said. “Prejudging defeats the purpose of justice.”