Police Commissioner Postpones Hearings on Assault Charges

Police department hearings originally scheduled to start today on an alleged police assault on Cambridge resident Clarence Anderson have been postponed until November 12 by request of the attorneys representing the two defending Cambridge police officers.

Defense attorneys Robert Wise and Barry H. Gerstein, representing Officers Francis Burns and Robert Ahern, said they sought to suspend the hearings because they are now arguing other cases in court.

"There is nothing unusual about the postponement, although people are trying to make it something mysterious," Gerstein said yesterday. "There may be political overtones to the case, but no wheeling and dealing is involved."

Clarence Anderson filed a citizen's complaint against two Cambridge police officers for assault and battery following his arrest July 11. The officers stopped Anderson while he was driving a motorcycle through Cambridge into Malden and charged him with dangeroous driving and failure to stop for a uniformed officer.

Anderson alleged that Burns hit him twice and kicked him in his right eye, and that Officer James F. Hallice shoved his head into the hood of the police car, knocking out a tooth.

Eye Witness Account

Eye-witness accounts of the incident cleared Hallice of involvement in the alleged beating and implicated Officer Ahern, whom Anderson later accused of assault and battery.

The defense has claimed that Anderson injured his eye when he fell off his motorcycle after swerving to avoid hitting a police car that had blocked his path.

If the police department finds the officers guilty of the charges, they can be suspended from the force.

In August, Malden District Court Judge Louis Glazer denied Anderson's application for assault and battery complaints on grounds of insufficient evidence.

A police investigation committee instructed to look into Anderson's charges presented a report written by Officer Francis Pisani to Police Chief James F. Reagan on September 30. A source close to the case said October 11 that the unreleased report recommends "disciplinary proceedings be initiated" against Burns and Ahern.

Reagan has not yet circulated the report, and Pisani said yesterday that he doubted the police chief would make the report findings public.

Neither counsel has access to the committee findings yet,