Wrong Man

The embattled Fullerton Police Department acknowledged Wednesday that police arrested the wrong man on suspicion of attacking a police officer last year. The department has launched an internal investigation into how the mistake occurred. Fullerton's acting chief, Kevin Hamilton, ordered the internal affairs investigation after reviewing a video of the incident shot by the arrested man, Veth Mam. The video shows a different version of events than police described in their reports and testimony.

The embattled Fullerton Police Department acknowledged Wednesday that police arrested the wrong man on suspicion of attacking a police officer last year. The department has launched an internal investigation into how the mistake occurred. Fullerton's acting chief, Kevin Hamilton, ordered the internal affairs investigation after reviewing a video of the incident shot by the arrested man, Veth Mam. The video shows a different version of events than police described in their reports and testimony.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has a new public relations nightmare, and his name is Khaled Masri. His case has turned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour of Europe into a debacle, and if even half of his allegations are true, America's ever-grimier reputation in "old Europe" will have another indelible stain. Masri, a 42-year-old German citizen, filed suit Tuesday against former CIA Director George J. Tenet and three private aviation companies.

The admission by the Los Angeles Police Department that it had arrested the wrong man in the beating of San Francisco Giants' fan Bryan Stow hardly marks the department's finest hour. But it's not an utter failure either. From the start, the case against Giovanni Ramirez had its problems. He offered an alibi, and witnesses described him as having had a full head of hair on the day of the beating (the assailants apparently were bald). And though his neck tattoo is distinctive, Ramirez is hardly the only Los Angeles man with a florid display.

Your editorial opposition to capital punishment does not merit the criticism you have recently received. I refer to some of the letters of May 6. The editorial (April 23) that evoked the response was ably prepared, and it is consistent with the journalistic excellence of The Times. Those who do not take their citizenship for granted will read soberly Siegel's thorough report in the case of Florida vs. Brown. JOHN S. BURKE Los Osos

On KABC's "Sportstalk" this week, Steve Garvey said he felt Mike Tyson should not be allowed to fight Evander Holyfield because he showed poor discretion as an athlete. People with glass mouths should not spit rocks. As the father of the year, Garvey has no right to talk. MICKEY MANDELL West Hills

Coaching changes for the Kings is no solution. Playing in Southern California is no excuse. Let's see the right defensive changes to complement the excellent scoring potential. We want a winner in L.A. PETE FRONTE Riverside

The headline Tuesday in the San Francisco Chronicle read: "Lopes Has Kemp Back on Track. " That's great, but what about all the other Dodgers who aren't so talented, which means pretty much everyone else? If nobody else improves, the Dodgers won't do much this season. So I asked Davey Lopes , and he took immediate exception. "I've never been a miracle worker," he huffed, which would seem to make him the wrong man to coach the Dodgers. When I told him I expected more out of him than just time spent with Matt Kemp , he really got peeved.

One innocent man, from Arizona, was sent back to prison for raping a child when the Supreme Court ruled he had no right to evidence that would later set him free. Another innocent man, from Louisiana, was convicted of murder and came within weeks of being executed because prosecutors had hidden a blood test that later freed him. The two men were linked at the Supreme Court last week by Justice Antonin Scalia, who argued that criminal defendants have no right to "potentially useful evidence" that "might" show they were innocent.

The wrong guy won the Heisman. That's what I thought. That's what I screamed. The bronze man had been mugged by Good Ol' Boy bias, leaving reality rolling in a gravy-lined gutter. It should have been Toby Gerhart. The Stanford running back was the best college football player in the country. He was the most dominating running back, the most compelling offensive presence, the biggest creator of moments. The Heisman went to the wrong man. Then, on Monday morning, I met that man. Stocky running back from Alabama.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Did you see the craziness of the video-game highlight, Kobe Bryant 2008, a toss against the backboard that he caught for a dunk? Did you feel the floor burns of those three steals, Grand Theft Basketball 2008, consecutive heists in the final minutes? Did you hear the Lakers come back from a 10-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter Friday night to silence the head-throbbing noise and nearly trash the best home court in basketball? "We could have won this game," Lamar Odom said, shaking his head.

Finding that a sheriff's detective had falsified evidence, a federal jury in Los Angeles ordered Riverside County on Monday to pay $2 million to a man exonerated by DNA evidence after serving 12 years in prison for rape. The verdict came 19 years after Herman Atkins was sentenced to 45 years in prison for a 1986 rape and robbery in Lake Elsinore. Atkins steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2000, DNA tests conducted by Richmond, Calif.

"CATCH a Fire" sounds like an awfully familiar story, and in some ways it is. Movies on the nightmare that was South Africa under the apartheid system and the heroic efforts made to resist it are hardly new, and it is difficult to avoid a sight-unseen dismissal of this latest example as too familiar and too late. Which would be a mistake. What that analysis doesn't count on, though this story is way more than twice told, is that it has never been told by Derek Luke.

"There are three classes of criminal defendants." Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Minnetian interrupts preparations for this day's criminal calendar in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk to talk about the view from his side of the counsel table. "One: Otherwise good people who make a mistake. Like the soccer mom who embezzles from the team. "Two: The repeat offenders who don't do anything heinous. Dope. Nonviolent crimes. You regard them on a sliding scale.

For many years, few questioned whether Carlos DeLuna deserved to die. His execution closed the book on the fatal stabbing in Corpus Christi, Texas, of Wanda Lopez, 24, a single mother and gas station clerk whose final, desperate screams were captured on a 911 tape. Arrested just blocks from the bloody crime scene, DeLuna was swiftly convicted and sentenced to death, though the parolee proclaimed his innocence and identified another man as the killer.