Witness didn’t see fight, says friend

A friend of the key witness in the case against 10 black youths accused of beating three young white women on Halloween testified Friday that the witness, Kiana Alford, arrived too late to see the attack or identify any of the assailants.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bouas moved quickly in an effort to discredit the defense witness, Lineshia Hill, whose testimony directly contradicted Alford’s detailed eyewitness account of the beating.

Bouas suggested Hill was too intimidated to tell the truth about what and whom she saw that night. She also pointed out some apparent inconsistencies between her testimony and what she told police in November.

The defendants, nine girls and one young man, ages 12 to 18, are charged with assault with intent to cause great bodily injury; eight face a hate-crime enhancement to their sentence.

Bouas said her office added the enhancement because two racial insults were shouted by unknown people before a crowd of about 30 attacked the women.

Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee will decide whether the minors are guilty. There are no juries in Juvenile Court.

Hill, 18, testified that she, Alford and Alford’s sister and infant son were driving down Linden Avenue in the Bixby Knolls section of Long Beach when they saw a group of residents gathered around the three victims.

“It looked as if they had been beaten up and hurt,” Hill said.

“How so?” asked defense attorney Clive Standlee Martin.

“An elderly white lady was holding her as if she was hurt,” she said.

She said Alford, who was driving, made a U-turn, pulled up to the women and got out to see if she could help.

“The neighbors were explaining what happened ... to both of us,” Hill said.

She said the victims also gave them details of the attack.

Defense attorney Frank Williams tried to question Hill repeatedly about what she thought of Alford’s testimony and identifications. But the judge sustained objections by Bouas that the answer was irrelevant.

“Did you tell me in the hallway that Kiana testified falsely?” Williams asked in a last, unsuccessful attempt to get an answer.

If Hill credibly undermined Alford’s testimony, it would significantly damage the case, as Alford provided the only evidence directly tying six of the 10 defendants to the assault. But it was not clear how effective Hill’s testimony, which continues next week, had been.

In questioning Hill, Bouas drew out that her cousin was slain on Halloween night in 2002, and that Hill’s parents had been leery of her going trick-or-treating with Alford. When Alford returned from identifying the defendants that night, Hill told her, “Leave me out of this.”

“You didn’t want to get involved in this case because you knew it would upset your family?” Bouas asked.

“Correct.”

Bouas asked if Hill had read newspaper accounts of Alford’s car being trashed on her last day of testimony, in what police say was intimidation by gang members.

She said she had.

“Did that scare you?”

“No.”

“It didn’t scare you?”

Bouas has accused the defendants, their families and the defense attorneys of being behind the alleged intimidation by demanding that witnesses identify themselves in open court, according to transcripts of closed court proceedings obtained by The Times.

“They want nothing better so they can intimidate her,” she told Judge Lee during a Nov. 29 closed hearing, arguing that her witnesses, aside from police officers, should be allowed to testify anonymously.

But Williams argued that if the court were to keep Alford’s identity concealed, “every single murder trial in our country would require us to conceal the identity of witnesses.”

Lee decided the witnesses would have to disclose their names.

Later, when Alford’s parked car was rammed and totaled, Bouas said it “shows to me evidence of ‘consciousness of guilt’ of the people in this courtroom,” according to another transcript of a closed proceeding. She said defense attorney Williams should have to pay for Alford’s car.

Although there has been no evidence or testimony presented about the alleged intimidation, it has become a running theme in the trial.

The parents of the minors say their children -- none of whom have criminal records -- have been tarred unfairly by the false inference that they are connected to gangs or to strong-arm tactics.

Bouas has said another key witness -- Marice Huff, a good Samaritan who broke up the fight -- was also afraid to identify the defendants because his wife saw what happened to Alford’s car on a “Geraldo At Large” segment.

She said he had to move into a hotel away from his wife and children.

“I don’t want to put him a position between choosing the case or his family,” Bouas said Dec. 20. “There is no choice; it has to be his family.”

In court Friday, Deputy Public Defender Stephanie Sauter disclosed that Huff’s wife had filed a temporary restraining order against him last summer.

On July 10, Huff was arrested for alleged domestic violence against his wife.

The next day, his wife, Maria Garcia, filed the temporary restraining order, writing: “He physically attacked me from behind

This, she wrote, happened in front of her 12-year-old daughter.

Bell Gardens Police Lt. Bruce Dow said the arrest report was filed with the district attorney, who has not filed charges against Huff.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said a new decision shielding law enforcement records prevents her from saying whether the case has been dropped or is still under review.

Hill is expected to return to the witness stand Monday for continued cross-examination.

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