Ex-Officer Denies Guilt in Beating of 2 Transients

A former member of the Police Department’s troubled Foothill Division pleaded not guilty Monday to charges filed after the beating of two homeless men.

Laurence Braun, 42, a 21-year police veteran who retired four days before prosecutors charged him, entered the pleas to two felony counts of using excessive force under color of authority. Municipal Judge William Chidsey allowed Braun to remain free on $5,000 bail pending a May 30 preliminary hearing.

Braun and his partner, Officer Scott Kennedy, were on patrol last Aug. 2 when they noticed a group of transients in suburban Pacoima. Braun told them to disperse. A short time later, the officers saw the group down the street.

“Officer Braun got out of the car and drew his baton. Shouting profanities, he first struck a woman, Theresa Carney, with his baton and pushed her head into a wall,” Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said last month. “Braun then cornered her companion, William Gable, against a fence, and beat him repeatedly with his baton,” said Reiner.