Jury picked for Oakland Riders retrial

• 3 fired Oakland police officers are accused of framing suspected drug dealers

A panel of ethnically mixed jurors was quickly selected Monday to hear the retrial of three fired Oakland police officers accused of framing and abusing suspected drug dealers in West Oakland four years ago. If alternate jurors are selected today, as expected, attorneys' opening statements could begin as early as Thursday. The original trial of Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag, Matthew Hornung and Jude Siapno -- known on the streets as "The Riders" -- lasted more than a year and ended in September 2003 with a mostly Caucasian jury acquitting the men on eight charges and deadlocking on the remaining 27 criminal counts. The outcome was publicly decried, with some complaining the original jury's racial composition didn't reflect Oakland's demographics. The men who testified they were falsely accused of possessing crack cocaine or roughed up were all black. Mabanag, 39, and Siapno, 36, are Filipino, while Hornung, 32, is white. Purported "Riders" leader Frank Vazquez is Hispanic, and is believed to have fled to his Mexican homeland to avoid prosecution. Defense attorneys contended after the first trial that the facts of the case, not the composition of the jury, dictated the outcome. It is the accused who are entitled by law to a jury of their peers, not the accusers, the defense team pointed out at the time.  [more]

• Complaints against Oakland police rise [more]