SAN DIEGO CHP OFFICER ACCUSED OF BEATING DUI SUSPECT

Posted by admin on August 5, 2009 under Uncategorized | 3 Comments to Read

Veteran San Diego CHP Officer Brian K., accused of assaulting a drunken-driving suspect at the Vista jail, pleaded not guilty Thursday to two felony charges of assault and filing a false report.

Officer K. was allowed to remain free on his own recognizance. He faces up to 2 1/2 years in prison if convicted. He is charged with two felonies, assault while acting as a peace officer and filing a false report while acting as a peace officer, and misdemeanor battery.

Yes, folks, it happens. A veteran San Diego CHP officer called repeatedly by prosecutors for years to testify truthfully against citizens accused of DUI, is caught beating the daylights out of a suspect and he does it on video.

It happens. It happens much more than the general public would like to admit.

What is even more frightening is that the suspect allegedly had a .07 blood alcohol, below the legal limit, and his lawyer pleaded him to a DUI.  

SAN DIEGO: A CESSPOOL OF MISCONDUCT

We have the same issues in San Diego as in Los Angeles and San Jose. The problem, 
much of the time, is that prosecutors and judges protect law enforcement officers at all costs, just as they protected Peter Pitchess in Los Angeles in the 1970′s.

Let me give you some examples.

A. I was a deputy public defender in 1992. I noticed over a period of just a week one officer arrested an unusually high number of people every night. I recall seeing five police DUI arrest reports on one night for this officer. But there was more. It looked like the officer had “whited out” the names of the suspects, and written new names in over the white out. The reports all looked essentially the same- the suspect usually was alleged to have “rolled” through an intersection in Mission Beach. But the suspect’s name was different from report to report. I reported this to my supervisor and heard nothing else.

In 2006 I saw that name again. History seemed to be repeating itself. To make a very long story short, I learned that a former city attorney prosecutor had gotten this police officer kicked off the DUI enforcement team. It seems that after the police department was satisfied that no one would be able to track this misconduct, they put him right back in the same neighborhood and he began falsifying police reports again.

What is shocking about this case is that the prosecutor who got this officer kicked off the DUI enforcement team for falsifying records is refusing to cooperate with me. He is a judge now. He never told any defense attorney that I know of about the officer falsifying reports. And now, some 14 years later, he has declined to assist me in my investigation which I take as tacitly trying to hide this officer’s continued misconduct from the defense bar.

Since I learned of this officer’s misconduct, numerous of his cases have been dismissed when defense attorneys caught him lying. We have been building up our own dossier of misconduct and sharing it because the courts are reluctant to provide us documents in this officer’s Pitchess file. I suspect this is because most of the judges run on a “Law Enforcement’s Choice” ticket for re-election. Granting pitchess motions bodes badly for re-election given the power of the police unions.

I am counsel on a Fourth District Court Appeal, Division One, case where a justice issued an Order to Show Cause why the Pitchess decision denying my request in that case should not be reversed. In short, the prosecution withheld evidence. The trial court, a former police officer, denied a very valid motion on a this rogue officer for no other reason than to protect him. But the Court of Appeal issued a stay of proceedings and demanded the City answer.

I’m still talking about the same police officer.

Another example of the prosecutors trying to protect this known rogue officer occurred when a prosecutor put him on the witness stand to lie. A Deputy City Attorney knew that defense counsel was going to call the officer’s sergeant to testify against the rogue officer in a suppression motion. Instead of just conceding that this rogue officer lied, the prosecutor put him on the stand. He lied. His sergeant testified and impeached the officer. The prosecutor put the rogue officer back on the witness stand to tell the judge that the sergeant was wrong. In short, this prosecutor suborned perjury. The judge granted the defense attorney’s motion and the case was dismissed based on the lack of this rogue officer’s credibility.

But the judge took no action against the prosecutor for putting on false testimony.

This rogue officer is still patrolling. He is still engaging in the same behavior. He’s out there tonight.

B. In 2000 another rogue officer from the DUI task force stopped a young Irish woman for “squealing” her wheels as she turned out of a driveway. The stress caused her to have an asthma attack. She asked the officer is she could use her inhaler. He said no. She repeated her requests continuously until she could stand it no longer. She reached into her pocket for her inhaler. The officer slammed her face into the cement, breaking her nose. The City paid out a hefty sum in damages after a civil rights case was filed. She was so terrified of this officer she moved to San Francisco.

Fast forward to 2007. A paraplegic is stopped by this same officer for allegedly making an illegal turn. The paraplegic was ordered out of the car. He told the officer he could not get out. The officer started yelling at him to get out. A passenger got the wheelchair out of the trunk. The paraplegic got himself into the wheelchair. The officer wheeled him to the rear of the patrol unit where he yelled, “Get out!” The paraplegic asked for accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act. He asked for a van. The office started yelling for him to get into the rear of the patrol unit. He could not. The officer hoisted him out of his chair and threw him longways into the back of the cruiser. Then the officer raced down the highway at speeds of more than 90 mph and slammed his brakes on from time to time so the paraplegic would slam into the rear of the passenger seat. Is a well known police abuse technique called the “Hollywood Screen Test.”

Once at the station, the officer yelled at the paraplegic to “get out.” Again, he said he could not. So, the officer grabbed onto the paraplegic’s ankles and pulled him out of the police cruiser, causing the man’s head to slam on the cement floor and bounce. He sustained a rotator cuff injury and a concussion.

The police report says that the paraplegic “walked with an unsteady gait.” The paraplegic wishes he could walk with any gait. But, he cannot walk at all.

I filed a Pitchess motion on this officer. I’ve done it many times. I know he has a massive file because I’ve had several judges provide me damning information from this file. What is shocking is that other judges have told me once they have reviewed the file that there is nothing discoverable in it. These judges lied about the empty contents of the file to assist the officer or the prosecution, not knowing I knew they were lying. That’s the power of the police unions.

After I filed the Pitchess motion in this case, and was denied the evidence I know exists therein, the city filed “resisting arrest” charges. They did that either to retaliate against the client for exercising his right to seek this discovery, or they waited to file this false charge until after the motion was denied to limit my showing of “good cause.” Now that I have filed another Pitchess motion, the city has accused me of forum shopping to find a judge who would grant the motion when, in fact, I am entitled by law to another motion give the new, false, allegations.

Why protect a cop who has cost the taxpayers money and who will do so again?

C. I represent a teenager, a former high school wrestler with no criminal record, who was brutally beaten and disabled by a rogue Chula Vista police officer. The City of Chula Vista has three lawyers defending the city and the officer. They actually claim it didn’t happen. The client is now disabled. We have evidence of the officer’s brutal history, and we have evidence of the officer lying to protect himself. I suspect the City of Chula Vista has spent more than $100,000 thus far trying to defend a rogue officer who they know has a habit of beating people.

D. Several weeks ago an off duty Oceanside police officer sat in his car in a parking lot and unloaded 5 measured rounds into the car occupied by a mother and her eight-year-old son. His window was shattered, indicating that he shot at the mother and child through his window. Any other person would have been arrested for attempted murder and bail would have been set at $1 million. Instead, this officer is on leave with pay. San Diego prosecutors have never seen a cop they wanted to prosecute. Every officer involved shooting is exonerated.  
 
PROSECUTORS PROTECT POLICE OFFICERS

This leads me into a very frightening point: prosecutors suborn perjury and withhold evidence. Now, that is not to say all prosecutors do this. Many do, however. That is why the Oceanside officer who shot the mother and child is still at large. That is why the four rogue officers listed above are still working. That is why the Isla Vista indictments were quashed. That is why Ramparts misconduct festered for so long.

Take for example, how the law firm representing the Legal Defense Fund instructs prosecutors to destroy evidence. They suggest that since evidence of police officer misconduct can be removed from an officer’s personnel file after five years, prosecutors should not warehouse such documentation in their own offices. In other words, this firm suggests that prosecutors destroy evidence the accused has a constitutional right to obtain pursuant to Brady v. Maryland (1963) 373 U.S. 83, stating, “Thus, it is in the best interest of both officers and law enforcement agencies to have a mechanism for routine destruction of citizen complaints that are older than five years. (See Exhibit B, attached herewith)

The problem is that prosecutors cannot legally or ethically destroy Brady evidence. But this Santa Monica Law firm representing law enforcement agencies suggests that they should do this anyway. 

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