By Anna Chandriani, Joleen Deng, and Oliver Kloots
SAN FRANCISCO — On July 21, a jury trial concluded in Department 16 of the San Francisco Superior Court with a not guilty verdict on domestic battery and simple assault charges, and a hung jury on charges of child endangerment and simple battery.
Deputy Public Defender Bruce Calderon argued during his closing statement that, based on the circumstances leading up to the incident, an improper police investigation, and unreliable witness testimonies, the burden of proof had not been met.
In a statement, second chair law student Michael McCauley said, “This case was an example of the DA’s office overcharging our client and trying to make an example of what was a difficult familial situation. … This case should never have been charged to begin with; it should have been dismissed at arraignment.”
On Tuesday, July 15, 2025, San Francisco Police Officer Victor Gonzalez, who was dispatched to the incident in January 2025, testified as a witness for the prosecution.
Officer Gonzalez, the only certified Spanish-speaking officer present at the scene, was the primary investigator in the case and the person who took statements from the three parties involved — the accused, the accused’s ex-wife (the complaining witness), and their 17-year-old son.
From the three statements he gathered, Officer Gonzalez testified that the situation began on Jan. 27, 2025, around 8 p.m., when the accused was sweeping outside the RV he had purchased for his ex-wife and son to live in. He saw it shaking and heard jumping from inside.
He stated the accused worried that this movement would cause damage to the pipes on the underside of the RV, so he went inside to tell his ex-wife to stop.
The two got into a verbal argument that quickly escalated into a physical altercation, during which the accused allegedly threw a water bottle at his ex-wife.
Their son attempted to separate the two of them, leading the accused to toss his son onto the sofa bed and slap him across his face once.
His son left the RV and called the police.
Deputy District Attorney Mary Polk argued during her closing that there was no evidence the accused attempted to stop the altercation from becoming more violent, and that his discipline toward his son was not within reason.
“I think what shone through more than anything was what the law says: that it’s legal to discipline a child, that you can defend yourself, and that you can defend your property. No matter what, you have a loving father who is voluntarily living in another RV, providing for both his ex-wife and his son, and despite all that, he’s trying to maintain their home and maintain that property — he’ll do anything it takes for the well-being of the entire family,” McCauley stated in his statement.
Officer Gonzalez discussed the three witness statements, relaying to the court that the accused claimed he had only thrown the water, not the bottle.
However, he explained, the accused’s ex-wife claimed that he had thrown the water in addition to the open water bottle, and their son claimed that the water bottle was sealed entirely.
DPD Calderon addressed the inconsistency between the witnesses’ testimonies in his closing statement by showing one of the People’s exhibits, a photograph of the water bottle’s cap on the floor.
However, the accused’s son claimed that a sealed water bottle had been thrown.
Furthermore, Calderon argued that the accused’s ex-wife, who took the stand as a witness, had been untruthful to the police throughout the incident and had an inaccurate narrative.
After Officer Gonzalez spoke to all three parties, he confirmed their statements with them before declaring the accused as the “dominant aggressor.”
Officer Gonzalez explained that using the information from these interviews and the evidence found on the scene, he made the decision to arrest the accused.
He was later charged with four misdemeanors: simple battery, simple assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.
Officer Gonzalez brought the accused to Bayview Police Station, where he served him with an Emergency Protective Order stating that he couldn’t have any contact with his son or ex-wife, couldn’t go through a third party to contact them, and must remain a minimum of 150 yards away until the order is lifted by a judge after the case is closed.
However, Calderon argued in his closing that Officer Gonzalez had not completed a thorough investigation due to his failure to collect all viable evidence, preserve the scene, photograph all parties involved, photograph the RV’s layout to determine the positioning of each party during the altercation, and speak with neighbors who witnessed the incident.
In Calderon’s closing, he pointed out that Officer Gonzalez’s FTO (Field Training Officer) wasn’t confident with Officer Gonzalez writing the police report alone.
Officer Gonzalez claimed during his testimony that he only included information he deemed to be “relevant” in the report but later admitted he left out important details.
On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, the accused took the stand and testified that, after entering the RV, he asked his son to tell his mother to stop dancing and jumping because of the damage it could cause.
His son refused, so the accused told her directly and exited the RV to continue sweeping outside.
He explained in his testimony that a few minutes later, the noises grew louder and the shaking intensified.
When he took the stand on July 16, he described his feelings, saying, “I felt bad. I felt ignored.”
Further into his testimony, the accused said he returned inside and started drinking from a water bottle until it was about one-third full.
He muttered to himself, “Son of a b**** I’m gonna have to argue again.”
His ex-wife responded by walking toward him, looking at him in a “very ugly way,” and calling him “uptight” and “tense.”
Moments later, he unscrewed the water bottle lid and threw the water remaining in the bottle at her.
“It was just to calm her down; she was coming at me aggressively,” the accused explained on the stand.
In Polk’s closing statement, she argued that the act of throwing the water bottle was done in anger and willfully, which warranted a domestic battery charge.
Contrastingly, Calderon argued that the accused’s ex-wife had provoked him by intentionally ignoring his requests and shaking the RV, which could have damaged the water piping.
Calderon further argued that since the accused testified that it wasn’t his intent to fight, his actions were done without malicious intent.
The accused further explained that his son, who was watching this from the sofa bed, attempted to stop the altercation by pushing the accused down the small set of stairs at the RV entrance.
He then stood up and re-entered the RV.
The accused stated that his son continued to intervene, despite the accused telling him to stay out of it multiple times, leading him to push his son back on the bed in an attempt to keep him safe and create distance.
His son stood up again, after which the accused slapped him across his face.
In his closing, Calderon argued that the accused tried to de-escalate the situation by placing his son on the sofa bed and actively discouraging him from getting involved.
However, his son didn’t listen and directly disobeyed him, according to the accused.
Calderon further pointed out that the law states it was legal for the accused to discipline his son within reason.
He also asserted that the accused’s son was never held against his will in the RV and was allowed to leave at any moment.
In Polk’s closing, she argued that based on the accused’s son’s weight, he was significantly smaller than the accused and would have had a difficult time fighting back.
She also argued that because of this incident, he faced mental and physical trauma.
In his closing, Calderon stated that the DA’s office has the ability and resources to assess the son’s alleged trauma to see if and how his mental state has changed since the incident, but didn’t.
Calderon also referred to Officer Gonzalez’s police report, which stated that there were no visible injuries on the son after the incident.
Calderon maintained that the entire situation began out of concern for the RV’s infrastructure.
The accused testified on the stand that he manages all of the RV’s maintenance, including repairs, so when the incident took place, he had a reasonable belief that imminent harm or damage was being done to the property.
Calderon further argued that since the accused’s ex-wife aggravated him and initiated the altercation, the accused was simply acting out of self-defense.
Polk responded by stating that the accused was angry when he initially entered the RV, while the accused’s wife was cooking and dancing in a nonthreatening way, so the accused could not have been acting in self-defense.
“The reason the police were called ultimately is because it’s the first time the son was ever physically disciplined. I think this speaks more to the shock and the speed at which this incident occurred. Now we are facing the lasting effects — our client is still not able to contact his family,” McCauley said in his statement to the Vanguard.
On July 21, the jury delivered a not guilty verdict on the domestic battery and simple assault charges and came to a hung jury, 8-4 in favor of the defense, on the child endangerment and simple battery charges.
Calderon filed a motion to have the remaining charges dismissed, but Judge Julia V. Cervantes denied the request.
Polk has expressed that she is going to retry the case on the remaining charges, during which the Emergency Protective Order will remain in place.
