By Stephanie Boulos
SACRAMENTO, CA – The description of a robbery suspect here last Friday in Sacramento County Superior Court by the victim may not have been very complimentary—then again, it was descriptive.
And gave the courtroom a good laugh, and a plug for a national insurance company.
Defendant Anthony F. Cordova was described by his alleged victim—according to a police report—as looking like “the caveman from the GEICO commercial.”
Defendant Cordova, on July 7, 2020, allegedly assaulted and robbed his victim, hitting him with a closed fist roughly 10 times and then stealing his cell phone.
The victim was left on the curb with two bloodied black eyes and several scratches, and had to borrow someone else’s phone to call the police.
Deputy District Attorney Kelli Keilermann called police Officer Ryan Arruda, but it was not difficult to see he was struggling to recall the event in question, fumbling through his police report incorrectly multiple times.
As Arruda began his testimony, he was asked how the victim identified the defendant at the time of the incident, to which Arruda quoted the victim’s description, saying “he looked like the GEICO caveman from the commercials,” referring to the character on the insurance company’s television advertisements.
Judge Don Currier, along with both attorneys, broke into visible laughter in the courtroom, as the witness was asked to repeat this description again to make sure everyone heard him correctly.
After this hilarious occurrence, the district attorney proceeded to ask some more questions related to the incident, to which the witness became incredibly confused, it appeared.
The witness misstated details from his police report and contradicted much of his testimony from earlier, and the judge along with the district attorney became increasingly confused and frustrated by the police officer’s failure to be concise.
With Judge Currier repeatedly stepping in to attempt to clarify the witness’s testimony to no success, Officer Arruda concluded by resorting to simply saying he does not recall anything else.
He was promptly dismissed by the court, and a second witness was called in, Officer Christopher Swift.
Swift delivered clarifying testimony, and with that, Judge Currier was finally able to rule there was sufficient cause to deem the complaint be filed.
Trial is set for June 29. A hearing to be released on no or lower bail was dropped.
Cordova—AKA the “GEICO Caveman”—was held in custody.
I’m a second year Political Science and Philosophy major at UC Davis from SoCal, hoping to pursue a career in law!
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