The retrial for a Fresno police
sergeant and three former cops on federal brutality and obstruction of justice
charges will be held in January next year, a U.S. District Court judge decided
Monday.
Judge Anthony Ishii made the
decision after lawyers for defendants Sgt. Michael Manfredi and former cops
Sean Plymale, Chris Coleman and Paul Van Dalen agreed to clear their work
schedules for the five-week trial starting Jan. 14.
The defendants face a second
trial because in February this year a jury in Ishii's courtroom announced it
was hopelessly deadlocked 9-3 to find the cops not guilty of any crimes
connected with the October 2005 arrest of Rolando Celdon.
A federal indictment accused
Manfredi and Plymale of concealing the alleged excessive force on Celdon by
former cops Coleman and Van Dalen. All four were charged with falsifying an
official report to obstruct justice. If convicted, each could have faced up to
20 years in prison.
Celdon was arrested on Oct. 10,
2005, after he broke into his girlfriend's southeast Fresno apartment and
assaulted her in front of her young son. He was punched and kicked, bitten by a
police dog, shot with a stun gun and blasted several times with a bean-bag
shotgun, testimony in the first trial revealed.
Celdon was later deported to
Mexico after being convicted of stalking and striking his girlfriend. Celdon
did not testify in the first police trial. Prosecutors have not said whether
Celdon will testify in the second trial.