Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal


By: Rene Romo Journal Southern Bureau


* Cop in rights trial says he has attention deficit disorder; plaintiff's lawyer claims bias

The plaintiff's attorney in a federal civil-rights trial Tuesday sought to portray Hobbs police officer Rodney Porter as a bad cop with a history of targeting minorities.

The officer's attorney, meanwhile, elicited testimony aimed at painting Porter as a flawed, but not prejudiced, man who struggled against attention deficit disorder to save his law enforcement career.

Both sides in the case sought to shape the eight-member jury's perceptions of Porter in the second day of testimony in a civil rights trial in Albuquerque filed by 58-year-old electrician Jimmie Marshall, a black man.

Marshall is seeking damages against the Hobbs Police Department for emotional distress, lost business and harm to his reputation following what Marshall claims was a racially-motivated traffic stop and arrest in Hobbs in December 1996.

Porter testified that problems in his previous job with the Midland, Texas, police department stemmed from his inability to focus on detailed paper work.

Porter resigned as a Midland police officer in 1995 after an internal investigation revealed he failed to properly file evidence, mostly drugs, in 32 criminal cases that prosecutors eventually dismissed.

''Attention deficit disorder has been a problem with me my whole life,'' Porter testified under questioning by Marshall's attorney Robert Gorence. ''It's not an excuse for what happened in Midland, but it's an explanation.''

Gorence sought to portray Porter's problems in Midland as evidence of bias against blacks and Hispanics, who made up the majority of those he arrested.

But, Midland internal affairs investigator Jeff Hale, when questioned by Porter's attorney Josh Harris, said it would not be unusual for so many of Porter's arrests to be black or Hispanic since the officer patrolled a part of Midland populated mainly by minorities.

Gorence suggested that Porter's actions constituted criminal acts, including evidence tampering or obstruction of justice. Porter replied that no criminal charges were ever filed against him, and he was allowed to resign.

In taking the witness stand Tuesday, Marshall said he did not stop when Porter flashed police lights behind him in December 1996 because he feared for his safety following a racially charged fracas between Hobbs police and black youths in October 1996.