Williams Told He May Have to Testify in Trial

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams has been ordered to be ready at a 24-hour notice to testify in Ventura County Superior Court in the case of a Reseda man charged with murder in a deadly shootout with a controversial police unit last year.

Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren refused to quash a subpoena Wednesday ordering Williams to be ready to testify in the case of Robert Wayne Cunningham, 33.

Perren said he wanted to wait until the trial is underway before making a final decision on whether the defense has grounds to call Williams.

Gary Windom, a Ventura County senior deputy public defender, said Williams was at the scene of the Newbury Park gunfight for 2 1/2 hours after two officers from the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section were shot.

Windom alleged that Williams participated in a “conspiracy of silence” with the officers by going through pre-interviews with the SIS team members before they spoke with Ventura County sheriff’s investigators.

But Deputy Los Angeles City Atty. Debra Gonzales said “anything that [Williams] knows about the incident is second-, third- or fourth-hand.”

Although Williams was at the scene, Gonzales said the only SIS team members he spoke with were the two officers who were shot in the June 1995 incident.