CIVIL SUIT IN OAKLAND POLICE CASE

'Riders' Accused Of Planting Rock Cocaine

OAKLAND -- A man prosecutors say was framed in a drug arrest by allegedly
renegade Oakland police officers known as "The Riders" filed the first
federal civil rights lawsuit in the scandal yesterday.

Rodney Mack, 19, of Oakland said police stopped him on July 3 near the
corner of 10th and Center streets in West Oakland and planted rock cocaine
on him before falsely arresting him on drug charges.

"There was no cocaine that he possessed or ever had," said Mack's attorney,
Jim Chanin of Berkeley. "I can categorically say that the drugs were
planted on him."

Charged with possession of narcotics for sale, Mack was jailed until Aug.
11. The charges against him were dismissed in September as prosecutors
investigated the officers, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court.

Named as defendants in the suit are officers Francisco Vazquez, 43;
Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag, 35; Jude Siapno, 32; rookie Steve Hewison, 28;
and their supervisor, Sgt. Jerry Hayter, 51.

Vazquez, Mabanag, Siapno and a fourth officer, Matt Hornung, 28, were named
Wednesday in a 16- page complaint charging them with 63 felonies and
misdemeanors for allegedly beating or falsely arresting drug suspects in
West Oakland this summer. Hewison and Hayter have not been charged in the case.

Mabanag, Siapno and Hornung were free on bail yesterday, but Vazquez has
not surrendered to authorities in the case and was described yesterday as
being distraught over the investigation.

"I know Frank was having a tough time dealing with it," said Mabanag's
attorney, Michael Rains of Pleasanton. Vazquez' attorney, Craig M. Brown of
San Jose, did not return a call yesterday.

Mabanag ordered the rookie, Hewison, to write a false report saying he saw
Mack discard 17 rocks of cocaine, according to the criminal complaint filed
Wednesday against the Riders.

A second rookie, Officer Keith Batt, 23, witnessed the allegedly phony
arrest. Upset by that action and by others, he later turned in the four
officers to trigger the largest Oakland police corruption case in recent
history.

Chanin said the Mack case was even more egregious because the Oakland
Housing Authority was threatening to evict Mack and his father on the basis
of the arrest.

"They're just compounding the wrong that's already been done to my client,"
Chanin said.

Oakland Assistant City Attorney Randolph Hall had not seen the lawsuit
filed by Mack and could not comment. But Hall said, "We're assuming that
there will probably be some claims" filed in the Riders case.