‘Reap the Whirlwind’ author Peter Houlahan explores the deadly story of Sagon Penn – Daily Bulletin

When Peter Houlahan finished work on his first true crime novel five years ago, a fellow writer sent him an old newspaper article and a message asking if he knew the story of a man named Sagon Penn, the San Diego police department, and the criminal trial that had gripped the city in the mid-1980s.

Houlahan, the author of Norco ’80, wasn’t convinced. But as he read the text he was sent, he became more and more intrigued by a story that many in San Diego remember.

SEE ALSO: Read the Book Pages newsletter online for the latest coverage of bestsellers, authors and more

Briefly, the story goes like this: On March 31, 1985, Penn, a young black man who trained in taekwondo and studied Buddhism, was driving a pickup truck with other young black men when he was stopped by two white San Diego police officers in the Encanto neighborhood. The officers, who had previously been dispatched on a call for an armed gang member, were frustrated because Penn—who was obediently handing over his wallet to the officer—did not remove his driver’s license from his wallet. Within minutes, as a crowd of witnesses gathered and a civilian observer watched from a patrol car, the incident escalated violently, and Penn grabbed one of the officers’ guns and shot both of them, one fatally, and the observer.

The district attorney charged Penn with murder and attempted murder, among other charges. His defense attorney and numerous witnesses argued that Penn acted in self-defense after police officers began beating him with batons. After two separate trials, Penn was acquitted.

“It was enough to pique my interest,” Houlahan says. “It’s pretty amazing. You think, ‘Wait a minute, the young black guy got the gun and then this happened – and then he’s not guilty?’

“You sense that a story has to have many more layers to it. Then you just start digging deeper and pretty quickly it becomes pretty clear.”

Houlahan’s new book, Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice and the Story of Sagon Penn, hits bookstores July 23.

In an interview condensed for length and clarity, Houlahan talked about his years of research, how he wove together the story’s various narrative strands, how the case has (or hasn’t) changed relations between the black community and police in San Diego and elsewhere, and more.

Q: You grew up in Southern California and have vivid memories of the bank robbery you wrote about in Norco ’80. Did you know about that one?

A: When I started the book, I didn’t know anything about it – and I was a total news junkie. And I went to UC San Diego at the time. I was there from 1979 to 1984, so I left right before that. I probably saw it in the LA Times, but it didn’t stick in my mind.

SEE ALSO: Get the latest stories about bestsellers, authors, books and more

Q: You mentioned that your research involved 1,400 newspaper articles and tens of thousands of pages of legal documents. How do you begin something that requires you to sift through so much material?

A: The good thing about writing about a criminal incident, especially one that goes to trial, is that it creates a tremendous amount of documentation. It’s the nature of the thing that a lot of people are picking apart the case in great detail – investigators, defense attorneys, defense investigators, criminal investigators. Once the case is over, every single cop writes his report if he was involved.

They’re interviewed again by a detective. Then the detectives go out and interview every single eyewitness as quickly as they can: Where were you? What did you see? The evidence technicians do their ballistics and everything. So there’s a tremendous amount out there.

And here’s the catch in the Sagon Penn case. He was found not guilty; it’s an acquittal. So no one has to save anything.

Q: What court and law enforcement documents did you have? Where did you find them?

A: In the courtrooms, it’s mostly appeals. Some very interesting stuff. But the testimony at the trial wasn’t it. The police reports weren’t it. The San Diego police didn’t have anything and they said they weren’t really willing to work with me. But I completely believe them when they say they didn’t have anything. And I found the police reports.

It was defense attorney Milt Silverman who had everything in the basement of his law firm. It was an adventure because the cases he had were incredible. They were remarkable. And he kept most of them in boxes in the basement of the 120-year-old house (where his law firm is located).

Q: You interviewed a large number of people.

A: I don’t like to get into my big interviews, like with Milt Silverman or (Assistant District Attorney) Mike Carpenter or even Colleen Riggs (wife of slain police officer Tom Riggs), until I really know what you’re talking about.

But eventually I start talking to people who are involved at different levels. I started talking to a lot of witnesses. Some of the guys who were riding in the truck. Some of the police officers. Donovan Jacobs (the SDPD officer who Penn said hit him) has not spoken to me. I understand that too. He was certainly aware of it. I contacted him through many different avenues.

SEE ALSO: Read excerpts from Peter Houlahan’s book “Norco ’80” about a notorious bank robbery and shootout

Q: After having all this material, documents, interviews, etc., how did you find the storylines of the book? Milt Silverman is obviously the key figure, but there are many other points of view here.

A: Newspaper articles tend to make the main points. The defense says Donovan Jacobs caused all this. Without him, it would never have happened. Sagon Penn was beaten up and acted in self-defense. And the prosecution is pretty clear. It just says a cop walked up to another guy and what you saw happened.

Those are the two sides of the story. I feel like Milt Silverman and Mike Carpenter believed wholeheartedly in what they believed in. I think Mike Carpenter absolutely believed that Sagon Penn was responsible and should be held accountable. And Milt Silverman absolutely did not. You start to pick up those threads.

Q: And beyond the courtroom and the trials?

A: One of the most fascinating aspects was how this affected society. Pretty quickly, certain family members (of Penn) and members of the black community were saying he was beaten and the police started it. So you see the polarization starting. And the police are saying something different.

Then of course it goes to the media. I found it fascinating how the media split and what role that played in the media. So you follow that thread.

Q: It was interesting to see the leadership of the San Diego Police Department at the time trying to be more progressive and improve relations between the department and minority communities. And then this happened.

A: The city as a whole is really a character in this context. It’s a unique place, the fact that they were so intentionally naive – so, “We’re not LA.” But leading up to that, they had the first and largest mass shooting (up to that point), the McDonald’s massacre (in San Ysidro). They had the first shocking school shooting, Brenda Spencer, the “I don’t like Mondays” shooting. And then the PSA plane crash was the biggest in California history. So there were a lot of big things happening and yet it was still kind of fun in the sun.

Q: One of the main characters, Penn, died in 2002 – that was in the article your friend sent him in 2019. How did you come up with the idea of ​​writing about him in the book?

A: That’s a huge challenge in this case. In a way, all of this happens to him. And then he kind of disappears from the scene during the trial. But you talk to people who can give you an idea of ​​what he was like. His taekwondo master, James Wilson (Penn), actually does some interviews. There’s a very short documentary that was made by some local news people.

The family didn’t want to participate. For whatever reason, they just had too much. Some spoke to me in confidence and confirmed an enormous amount of documents. He didn’t testify at the trial, but his three major statements (in separate police interviews) are quite astonishing. When he talks about the incident, he is quite focused and very consistent. Otherwise, he talks incoherently, he is incoherent, there are no conclusions.

Q: This happened before Rodney King, before George Floyd and many other cases involving police and black people. Has anything changed in San Diego or elsewhere as a result?

A: Back then, some people said you felt like a young black man could get a fair trial in San Diego. But if you ask other people today, they’ll say nothing has changed. I think there were and would be people today who came out of the Sagon-Penn trial thinking exactly what they thought before.

Because it doesn’t quite fit into anyone’s preferred narrative. It’s sloppy, it’s messy.

Do you know why it’s called “Reap the Whirlwind”? These are things that start and then gain so much momentum that they’re almost inevitable and can’t be stopped.