Prosecution witnesses continued to take the stand Monday in the trial of four St. Croix police officers on federal conspiracy charges.
Officers Ronald Pickard, Dean Bates, Renaldo Philbert and Victor Suarez are accused of intimidation, physical assault, harassment and making arrests without just cause. Pickard and Bates are also accused of the May 10, 1999 rape of a nightclub dancer.
On Monday an Ohio couple testified that while they were visiting St. Croix in 1998, Pickard pulled a weapon on them.
Rick and Susan Mattox, who have since divorced, said the incident began when they stopped their car in Christiansted to ask directions, according to the St. Croix Avis.
Their car was stopped in the middle of the street, they told the court, when a black sports utility vehicle with tinted windows stopped behind them and blasted its horn. As the couple circled through town the SUV followed them, eventually pulling ahead of their car and cutting them off.
The couple allege that Pickard and another man, both clad in jeans and a T-shirt, climbed out of the SUV. Rick Mattox said Pickard pulled a gun, threatened his life and physically assaulted him.
Both Rick and Susan Mattox said the occupants of the SUV did not identify themselves as police officers until the altercation had ended.
According to the Avis, Rick Mattox twice pointed out the wrong defendant in court Monday. His ex-wife, however, identified Pickard, the newspaper said.
Prosecutors also called to the stand two self-described former crack cocaine users, who testified that Pickard assaulted them on separate occasions in 1996 while they were in custody.
Both Kora Mannix Southwell and Winston Tutein said Pickard threatened to kill them while suggesting they knew something about the unsolved murder of a homeless woman, Philomena White, in 1995. White was found near a garbage dumpster at Altona Lagoon with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
The indictment against the four officers said that "under color of law" they "did intentionally and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate and agree with each other . . . to injure, threaten, oppress and intimidate persons residing and visiting St. Croix…"
Prosecutors contend that the four officers called themselves "The Primos," a group headed by Pickard.
Last August a federal grand jury indicted Pickard and Bates for the alleged rape of a nightclub dancer, conspiracy, firearms possession, witness-tampering and civil rights violations by assault and intimidation.
A superceding indictment in February tacked on additional charges and accused Suarez and Philbert of assault and intimidation of witnesses.
The trial, which was pontponed several times, began on July 5 in District Court on St. Croix. It is expected to last two weeks.
