FROM:
George Kennedy, District Attorney

CONTACT PERSON:
Karyn Sinunu, Chief Assistant District Attorney
(408) 792-2702

For release on June 7, 2005

PALO ALTO POLICE OFFICERS CRAIG LEE AND MICHAEL KAN

The District Attorney’s Office will not retry Palo Alto Police Officers Kan and Lee.  Our reasons are:

Our experience causes us to believe a retrial would likely also end in a hung jury.
(See “Riders” case.)The first trial was vigorously prosecuted; the first jury worked diligently.A second deadlock would not sufficiently promote police accountability or justice.

Palo Alto is better served by the police department moving beyond the distraction and division of this case and more quickly into Chief Johnson’s department-wide refresher training on arrest and detention issues, as well as scenario-based training.

The victim has been fully compensated for his injuries.

The officers pleaded no contest to a lesser infraction of unlawfully fighting in public and were convicted of that offense, a violation of Penal Code section 415.

The Palo Alto Police Department will soon have video cameras in police cars.