[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-11/bay-area/30389983_1_police-officers-ronald-stanley-bridgeforth-sf-charges]
More than four decades after jumping bail, a 67-year-old college counselor walked into a Redwood City courtroom Thursday morning and said he planned to accept, at long last, punishment for opening fire on South San Francisco police officers in 1968.
Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon in 1969, but fled before sentencing. On Thursday, after his attorney said he would plead guilty on Nov. 22, Bridgeforth was handcuffed and led away by bailiffs as he whispered, "I love you," to his wife. Bail was set at $25,000.
Speaking briefly during the hearing in San Mateo County Superior Court, Bridgeforth said, "I guess I've come back to face the consequences of my actions."
Bridgeforth, who lived under the name Cole Jordan while working as a counselor and faculty member at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Mich., is expected to post bail. He promised to make every court appearance.
S.F charges dropped -
Although Bridgeforth could be sentenced to jail or prison, he was buoyed by the news that officials will drop murder charges against him in the killing of police Sgt. John Young at San Francisco's Ingleside Station on Aug. 29, 1971.
Prosecutors had asserted when the charges were filed in 2007 that Bridgeforth was the getaway driver, and that he and seven other defendants also accused of murder were all members of the Black Liberation Army, a violent offshoot of the Black Panthers. The men, along with another alleged associate, were also charged with conspiring to kill officers over the course of several years.
Previously, prosecutors dismissed charges against six men while securing no-contest pleas on reduced charges from two who were already serving life prison terms for other crimes.
"We have advised his (Bridgeforth's) attorney that we will not proceed on the charges," state Chief Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette said in a statement.
After the hearing, Bridgeforth's attorney, Paul Harris, said he would ask that his client be sentenced to probation. He said Bridgeforth had never been in the Black Liberation Army and had never taken part in killing police officers.
Karen Guidotti, the chief deputy district attorney in San Mateo County, said she would ask for a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
"For shooting at police officers? Absolutely," Guidotti said. "It was a gunbattle. It's just fortuitous that none of the officers was hit."
Her office released more information about the 1968 incident at a White Front store on El Camino Real in South San Francisco, where Bridgeforth allegedly tried to use a stolen credit card. After a detective, Doug McCool, arrived to find Bridgeforth and a clerk at odds over a $29 transaction, Bridgeforth was taken to a back room.
After a second officer, Miff Singleton, arrived, Bridgeforth allegedly pulled out a revolver and walked the officers and the store manager to the front. He jumped into a getaway car with two men, Ray Boudreaux and Henry Jones, who were also later charged in the Ingleside Station case in San Francisco.
Wounded in gunfight -
As the men tried to pull away, a third officer, George Bautista, drove up and blocked them. Bridgeforth allegedly fired, officers fired back and the getaway car crashed, prompting the men's arrest. Bridgeforth, who was shot in the foot, was the only one wounded, his attorney said.
Sgt. Joni Lee, a spokeswoman for South San Francisco police, said that all three officers have retired but are available to testify.
Bridgeforth has given few details about his life on the lam, which included fleeing briefly to Africa, getting married, raising two sons and earning a master's degree. Bridgeforth and his attorney told Judge Lisa Novak that he has lived in Michigan for the past 35 years. Last week, Harris said, he resigned from his faculty position in Ann Arbor.
Shortly before leaving for court Thursday morning, Bridgeforth sat in a room at the Belmont Motel 6. He appeared startled when his phone sounded out an "Over the Rainbow" ring tone.
"It's one of my students," he said, looking at the screen. The previous evening, he said, he sent a cryptic e-mail to 10 students that said "I love them and I'll always be with them."
With his lawyer, Paul Harris close by, (left) Ronald Bridgeforth prepares to drive to the court building to surrender himself on a 42 year old arrest warrant on Thursday November 10, 2011 in San Mateo County Court in Redwood City, Ca. Bridgeforth, under charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a San Francisco police officer 42 years ago, jumped bail and fled, has now returned to face the charges against him.
Credit: Michael Macor
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