By Angelina Caplanis
FRESNO—A public defender here in Fresno County Superior Court argued that there was no probable cause for his client’s arrest, and that the victim was the first aggressor.
Defendant Domingo Rosiles is facing trial for domestic violence against a victim with whom he already had a peaceful-only contact order. And last week, Judge Ana de Alba determined that Rosiles violated a post plea agreement from a case in January, and that there was probable cause for his new arrest in February.
Rosiles’s public defender, Marco Aguiar, compared the victim’s inconsistent statements on the 911 dispatch call with the victim’s statements to Fresno County Deputy Kaaranvir Jhawer, the responding officer, to claim that the information that Jhawer had did not support an arrest.
Judge Alba disagreed with Aguiar, and said that based on Jhawer’s testimony, his training and experience, he had probable cause to believe Rosiles violated the peaceful contact order and committed an act of domestic violence.
Deputy Jhawer was the main witness for the prosecution during the hearing, and testified that on Feb. 17, 2020, he received a radio dispatch that an incident of domestic violence had occurred at a nearby residence and the suspect had fled in a car. The caller told dispatch that her boyfriend had hit her and tried to run her over with his car.
After a brief search for the suspect, Jhawer went to the victim’s residence. The victim identified herself as the person who called 911 to report Rosiles. She had a cut on her hand that looked like a bite mark and was crying while she gave her statement, Jhawer said.
According to the victim, Rosiles pulled her hair during an argument and then tried to leave the house, taking his car, her wallet, and her keys. Rosiles got into his car and the victim was leaning into the passenger’s seat to retrieve her belongings when Rosiles began reversing the car. He stopped the car and the victim pulled him onto the ground. Jhawer said that’s when Rosiles bit her.
After taking the victim’s statement, Jhawer found Rosiles at his mother’s address, where he took Rosiles’s statement as well.
At first, Rosiles denied biting the victim. Jhawer testified that during his investigation of Rosiles, he thought that he was “trying to hide some things.” That, and the fact that he fled the scene, made Jhawer suspect Rosiles.
Aguiar’s cross-examination of Deputy Jhawer revealed that the victim may have been the first aggressor. According to Rosiles, the victim hit him first and struck him about 20 times with a hard object. Rosiles had a bump on the back of his head, and said the object was a glass water pitcher.
Still, Jhawer determined that Rosiles was the “dominant aggressor” and arrested him. Later, Jhawer was informed by other deputies that Rosiles had a peaceful contact order against him.
Aguiar argued that the victim’s inconsistent statements on the 911 call that Rosiles tried to run her over, as well as evidence that the victim was the initial aggressor, raised issues about Jhawer’s determination of Rosiles as the dominant aggressor.
The issue of whether Jhawer had probable cause to arrest Rosiles for domestic violence was important because that would determine whether Rosiles would also be found to be in violation of a post plea agreement from a previous case. The conditions of the agreement were to obey all laws, and to incur no new arrest based on probable cause.
The fact that the victim lied on the 911 call, which factored into Jhawer’s arrest of Rosiles, should show that there was no probable cause, Aguiar argued. “If everything she said is true, why isn’t she here [to testify],” Aguiar said.
Deputy District Attorney Lauren Meegan argued that, for the purposes of the hearing, it didn’t matter what actually happened because that’s an issue for trial.
“We’re only here to determine whether when he was arrested for a violation of the post plea agreement, domestic violence, and violation of peaceful contact order, were those arrests based on probable cause,” Meegan said.
Ultimately, Judge Alba found Rosiles in violation of his post plea agreement because he was arrested based on probable cause that he had committed a crime. Jury trial is set for July 16 at 8:30 a.m., in Fresno, Department 2.
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