Sharing Unhappy Feelings About Police : Support Group Meets to Listen to People Who Say They Are Victims of Brutality

Anthony Flores says he has nightmares about police beating him up. Donn Christensen Jr. says patrol cars make him nervous. And Patricia Patterson-Wilmeth says she wouldn’t call 911 if her life depended on it.

They are three members of a support group for people who say they were victimized by police. The group meets twice a month in Thousand Oaks, focusing on problems that range from the cost of lawsuits to their fears of harassment.

“The support group is structured to help each other make it through the stages of recovery in one whole piece,� founder Patterson-Wilmeth said. “The thread that ties us together is that we all experience the same symptoms and feelings.�

About 50 people from Ventura and Los Angeles counties have attended meetings since the group began in August, Patterson-Wilmeth said. But most of the meetings draw only four or five people eager to share their stories.

Patterson-Wilmeth started the group after a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy allegedly grabbed her around the neck and wrenched her back while forcing her into a patrol car.

Christensen joined shortly after a Ventura police officer jolted him nine times with a stun gun last June while he was recovering from an epileptic seizure.

And Flores began attending meetings after Oxnard police officers allegedly attacked him when they responded to a report of a loud party last June at his parents’ house.

Group members say the problem of police brutality has become much more recognized since the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police officers. But therapy groups for victims appear to be extremely rare, according to experts on police misconduct.

A group in the San Diego County community of Vista and another in Santa Monica share the same goals as Patterson-Wilmeth’s Thousand Oaks group, officially named the Support Unit for Victims of Crime and Police Brutality.

Several of the group members have filed suits against law enforcement agencies. Because of the pending litigation, authorities were hesitant to comment about the group.

However, one local official, who asked not to be named, said he believes the group has a hidden agenda.

“It’s very hard for me to believe that they don’t have some ulterior motives--attempting to intimidate defendants or sow seeds of mistrust in the public, and hence the jury,� he said.

Christensen, 27, credits the group with giving him the strength to put his experience with police behind him.

He said he suffered a seizure June 23 while he was driving, and veered off the road.

The officer who arrived at the accident ordered him out of his car. When Christensen didn’t respond, the officer grabbed him. He said he pulled free and was then stunned repeatedly with a stun gun.

The officer was suspended for 20 days without pay, but the district attorney’s office said the officer committed no provable violation of criminal law and declined to file charges. The city of Ventura agreed to pay $150,000 to Christensen to settle a lawsuit asserting that he suffered psychological and neurological damage.

But Christensen said that was not the end of the matter for him. “No amount of money can ever pay you back for peace of mind that you lose when you go through something like this,� he said. “It changes your life forever.�

After the accident, Christensen said, he withdrew from people. He quit his job as a radio disc jockey. And he left Ventura County as fast as he could.

He is now living with his father in Los Angeles and plans to major in journalism at Pierce College.

“I would never have been able to do all this without the group,� Christensen said. “I’d probably still be muddling around with my own problems myself.�

At a recent Wednesday evening meeting, seven people sat in a relaxed circle as they shared magazine articles about police brutality, arranged to show up for one woman’s court appearance and warned each other to document encounters with police.

With emotions swinging between rage and fear, the group members talked about how the experiences had affected their lives.

Flores, a 22-year-old construction worker, said he thinks about his experience with police each day and has nightmares about it at night. Flores contends that he and several other people were attacked by Oxnard police officers with flashlights, batons, Mace and police dogs during a graduation party at his parents’ house last June. Flores ended up with a gash across his head.

He and three others were tried and acquitted on charges of resisting arrest. Eleven of the party-goers, including Flores, have sued the city, its police chief and 10 officers.

Oxnard police declined to comment on the matter except to say that an internal investigation was inconclusive because the Flores family refused to cooperate.

Flores said that every time he sees a police officer he grows fearful that he will be harassed. And when he spots a patrol car pulling someone over, he automatically slows to try to make sure the motorist will be all right.

“I come here sometimes feeling really down,� Flores said. “I have feelings inside just balled up inside of me.�

Victims of police brutality can experience reactions ranging from minor nervousness to post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Armando T. Morales, a clinical social worker who says he has treated several hundred police brutality victims.

Morales said victims may become overly attached to their families and fear leaving home. Depression may set in. And many will relive the altercations repeatedly.

Patterson-Wilmeth started the group after looking unsuccessfully for people who would understand how she felt when a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy allegedly grabbed her around the neck in September, 1989, and dragged her to a patrol car. She said her forehead was cut and her back injured when he forced her into the vehicle.

The deputy arrested Patterson-Wilmeth on suspicion of interfering with police after she joined an argument between the deputy, two county firefighters and her husband, a doctor, over the medical treatment of a child struck by a car in the neighborhood.

The district attorney’s office declined to file charges against Patterson-Wilmeth, 43, who is suing the deputy.

But attorney Alan Wisotsky, who is representing the Sheriff’s Department, said two eyewitnesses confirmed that Patterson-Wilmeth interfered and said excessive force was not used by the deputy.

Patterson-Wilmeth said that after the incident she disconnected the alarm system in her house because it rang at the Sheriff’s Department. She said she entered a depression that lifted only after she saw a newspaper article about Christensen’s run-in with Ventura police and decided to start a group.

“At that point, one of the most important events of my life took place,� Patterson-Wilmeth said. “I was on my way to becoming a whole person again.�