Attorney Informs Vanguard That Video on Cell Phone Appears to Be Erased –
In breaking news this morning, Attorney Anthony Palik informed the Vanguard “that the video was erased.” However, he added, “We do have a single image.” He said, “We are looking for a method of possibly rescovering” the video.
Police claim he was making threats and attempting to re-incite a fight. Mr. Castro is being held in custody on an ICE hold while his immigration status is determined.
On Wednesday night, Defense Attorney Anthony Palik had possession of the cell phone used to record the incident. Mr. Palik had reported that the phone was locked and therefore the contents uninspected.
Paramo Hernandez, one of the organizers of the Wednesday event, told the gathering of reporters and community members, “We are here in the City of West Sacramento once again to protest brutality in this city, that’s out of control.”
“We are getting tired of protesting against the police,” he said, “Now it’s about time to direct our energy to elected officials.”
“What they are doing to our community, all of these brutal beatings,” he continued, “Why is it that no one takes action while our people suffer and go into the hospital… after being beaten brutally by the police?”
For the first time, Aristeo Vasquez-Munoz spoke publicly, following the arrest that occurred at approximately 9:00 at night, when police were called to Simon Terrace regarding a large fight with beer bottles being used as weapons.
Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was arrested for assault and battery and child endangerment.
He told reporters and those gathered, in Spanish, “When the police arrived there was a group of four or five people, they came toward us saying lay down.”
“I asked why,” he said and he was told to get down again. He continued to question why he was being asked to get down. “I threw myself to the ground with my hands behind my neck. While I was on the ground, he came toward me and he started to hit me with his billy-club. He let me up and he put me in the patrol car.”
Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was taken to the jail. He was unsure as to how long the event took.
He said when he was on the ground, his wife came to see him, and the police grabbed her and dropped her on the ground.
“I was hit in front of my children,” he continued. “They never told me why they were taking me to jail.”
Aristeo Vasquez-Munoz said that there were a lot of people around and none of them saw him do anything. “I was only made to go to jail because I asked the police why they were making me go to the ground,” he said.
They took him to the hospital in Woodland and then to jail. “Once in jail, I told them I have pain in my legs, they never paid attention,” he told reporters.
“I want justice,” he said. “They have to answer for this, for what they did.”
“What pains me the most is that my children were looking while the police was brutally beating me up,” he added.
The West Sacramento Police deny these allegations. West Sacramento Police Lt. Tod Sockman issued a statement on Wednesday morning stating that he reviewed the video and did not see any evidence or hint of police brutality or excessive force.
“Our preliminary review indicates that the officers acted appropriately. As will [sic] all uses of force a formal administrative review will take place,” he said.
However, at least some of the incident took place out of the view of the in-car camera.
The statement from Lt. Sockman indicated, “The audio was recorded.” He stated, “The officer can be heard directing the suspect to stop resisting and that he was under arrest.”
According to Lt. Sockman, “While he was being taken into custody, he was resisting and non-compliant and fighting with the officers and so they used a baton to distract him while they got the handcuffs on him.”
He said that they could not get the handcuffs on him so they hit him with the baton. “Once he complied,” he was handcuffed.
The statement added, “As customary, photographs were taken and the suspect was taken to Woodland Memorial to be checked prior to booking at the jail.”
Attorney Anthony Palik strongly disputes this account. “If you take a look at his legs, they are so badly beaten that such force would have been unnecessary in order to restrain a person with handcuffs on him,” he told the Vanguard Wednesday afternoon and added, “It’s clearly excessive force.”
Anthony Palik, who represents both Mr. Vasquez and Mr. Castro, spoke as well on Wednesday night.
“The West Sacramento Police Department has a history of charging people with these types of crimes when in fact there is no underlying offense,” he told the crowd and reporters. “This is resisting arrest, battery on an officer, this is just not what happened.”
“They don’t really have a way to charge Mr. Vasquez-Munoz, so they have to rely on whatever they can think of at that moment,” he added.
He said that they have no idea why Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was being charged with child endangerment.
Mr. Palik, who was the attorney for the Galvan brothers in the first and third trial, indicated “This is no different from what I have seen before [in that case].”
Mr. Palik also indicated that every time he has heard from the authorities, the story has changed. “Originally he [Jesus Castro] was arrested allegedly for being intoxicated in public,” he said. “This is a new trend… when people are taking videos and pictures of what they consider to be police misconduct, which I think every citizen has a right to do, that they are charged with being drunk in public.”
Mr. Palik said that no charges had been filed against Mr. Castro when they appeared in court earlier on Wednesday.
“He’s in the process of being deported even though he’s married to a permanent resident and he has the right to remain, so we’ll be fighting his deportation,” he said. “It’s my guess they’re deporting him as fast as they can because then they’ll eliminate a witness to what actually happened.”
“The camera right now is locked and we’re in the process of obtaining the code to unlock it,” Mr. Palik told reporters Wednesday night, in response to a question as to whether they have seen the video yet.
Mr. Castro, according to Anthony Palik, had not been drinking. “I think that the reason we know that is that the District Attorney did not file charges,” he said. “They arrested him supposedly for being intoxicated in public, but that in fact wasn’t the case.”
He said in response to police claims that this was justified use of force, “It’s obviously excessive force because if you look at Mr. Munoz’ leg… it’s pretty badly injured.”
“If you believe what happened, this amount of force shouldn’t be necessary for putting someone in handcuffs,” he continued, “They have not alleged that he resisted in any manner which would justify this level of force.”
He noted he is particularly concerned as a citizen that the people who train the police are “sort of advocates for as much force as possible, at Mr. Galvan’s trial we had a fellow named Don Cameron, who was testifying for the prosecution… he believes basically that any force is acceptable.”
“This is not acceptable,” he said, “There is not a Broderick Boys gang in West Sacramento, the gang that we have to worry about is somebody called The Third Street Posse, also known as the West Sacramento Police Department patrolling in the Broderick area.”
“This is what they call themselves,” Mr. Palik indicated. “For the past six or seven years… they have actually been the gang everyone fears.”
“It’s actually not the community that calls them that [Third Street Posse], they call themselves that,” he said. “I think it’s very telling.”
He said that many people have indicated to him that when the police arrest them, they are told that the police are the biggest gang in town. “To me that smacks of a kind of Rampart Division style of policing… That ties into the Gang Injunction.”
Once again, Lt. Sockman said that he reviewed the video and did not see any evidence or hint of police brutality or excessive force. Mr. Vazquez-Munoz is scheduled to be arraigned on September 13.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Can someone tell if the video was erased or never there? Who can do the forensics on something like a phone?
If Castro was taking the video of the alleged police beating, why is the defense having a problem “unlocking” the phone to see what the video shows?
If the phone was locked, then the police would not have been able to see the video or delete it without first unlocking it. I smell a rat and it is not the police.
Also, I echo Eliane’s question. How can the heading of this article say that the video has been deleted if the defense cannot unlock the phone?
I think it would be hard for WSPD to say the initial investigation shows the force was justified if there was an officer on the audio recording saying, “I’m beating you because you are Mexican.”
“Can someone tell if the video was erased or never there? Who can do the forensics on something like a phone? “
We should find out.
Elaine: Because the attorney had not talked to the defendant yet.
Boone: When I was on a ride along, the phone was locked from a subject who was arrested, the officer took it to a tech guy who unlocked it in less than a minute.
Boone and Elaine: The last phone was examined and I updated the story, I did not update the rest of the story.
Obvious: I think there are any number of answers to that. Although I will note that when he spoke, he never mentioned that statement. I’ll have to ask about that.
After David updated the article, putting the update at the start, I added only “Wednesday night” to the sentence about Mr. Palik saying that the camera was locked and that they were trying to unlock it. I thought that would be enough to clarify that that was the statement from last night (Wednesday) and that it had been locked last night, but “in breaking news this morning…” I am sorry that it was still confusing!
What were the extent of his injuries?
David’s previous posting showed photos of him with badly bruised legs, but standing upright without crutches.
Are there broken or cracked bones, or cartilage damage (e.g. kneecap, ankle) or major burst blood vessels or damaged tendons or ligaments? Or is it just severe bruising?