Jury Finds West Sacramento Man Guilty of Resisting Arrest Despite Being Badly Beaten By Police

By Jeff Briggs

In September of 2011, Aristeo Vasquez-Munoz was arrested and charged with battery, resisting arrest, hitting a woman holding a child, and child abuse. During a commotion following a confrontation on the street, police officers badly beat Mr. Vasquez-Munoz, who suffered severe bruising to his legs.

By the time the case finally went to trial two years later, only the resisting arrest charge remained.  A jury after a few hours of deliberation found him guilty of the misdemeanor, and he received one year of probation and an $865 fine.

The second day of the People v. Aristeo Vasquez-Munoz trial began with Deputy District Attorney Barry Shapiro calling Mark Martinez to the stand. Officer Martinez has been a police officer in West Sacramento for 15 years and was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene on July 17, 2011.

While on the stand, Officer Martinez testified that he received a call that there was a fight involving 15 subjects and that bottles were being used as weapons. Officer Martinez also received information that a victim needed medical attention and that a Hispanic male wearing a red T-shirt and black shorts was a person of interest.

As he arrived on the scene, Officer Martinez was instructed by Officer Gill to detain a subject wearing a red T-shirt and black shorts standing thirty feet away. Officer Martinez stated that he then drew his firearm, identified himself as a police officer, and told Mr. Vasquez-Munoz to get on the ground at least six separate times.

According to Officer Martinez, Mr. Vasquez-Munoz, who was accompanied by three or four other subjects, was angrily yelling and refused to comply with his orders.

As Martinez got closer, Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was the only individual not to get on the ground and remained standing with his hands in his pockets. Officer Martinez then closed the gap between himself and Mr. Vasquez-Munoz, grabbed  Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s arm and, with the combination of Officer Gill’s defensive strikes, they were able to get  Mr. Vasquez-Munoz  to the ground.

Officer Martinez also testified that as he grabbed Mr. Vasquez-Munoz, the defendant’s arm tensed up as if he were going to put up a fight. During the cross-examination, Officer Martinez admitted that Mr. Vasquez-Munoz gave the officers no trouble while being escorted to their patrol car.

The prosecution’s last witness was to recall Officer Gill to the stand. Officer Gill testified that he took Mr. Vasquez-Munoz to the hospital afterward, as a part of regular police procedure. Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was being belligerent and was refusing medical attention. However, the doctor felt Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s leg, took his blood pressure, and medically cleared him to leave.

After a short recess, the defense called their first witness, Maria Figue, Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s wife, to the stand. She stated that a gentleman from across the street was saying things to a group of people inside, but she couldn’t understand what was being said because it was in English.

The group of people inside began saying things which caused the gentleman on the other side of the street to cross over in an attempt to fight them. As a fight broke out, Figue returned inside because she felt ill due to her diabetes.

While inside she could not see much, but she could still see Mr. Vasquez-Munoz. She then saw police arrive at the scene and went outside when she heard her son screaming.

When she went outside she saw the police hitting Mr. Vasquez-Munoz while he was lying down and not fighting back. Figue also indicated that Mr. Vasquez-Munoz had stayed in the same spot as when she was observing him from inside, but she did not see the police actually approach Mr. Vasquez-Munoz .

Furthermore, Figue took photos of her husband’s injury and they were shown to the jury. She also stated that they visited the doctor the very next day and that Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was on crutches for a month after the incident.

During the cross-examination, Figue testified that while she could hear her son scream she did not hear the police officers yelling at Mr. Vasquez-Munoz .

The next witness was Jesus Vasquez, Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s 14-year-old son. He recalled that he was outside with all his neighbors, around ten people in total, and they were just conversing with each other. The gathering took an unexpected turn when two men on the other side of the street, one wearing a red shirt, starting screaming “bad” words.

A fight then broke out and a total of six people started kicking and punching. Jesus was with his dad the entire time and they did not cross the street. Jesus also called the police when the aggressive individuals tried to fight them. By the time the police arrived the fight was over and the officers came straight at his dad. Jesus then testified that when the police were approaching his dad, the defendant asked “why?” and Jesus never saw his dad physically fight the police.

The last witness the defense called upon was Carmen Romero, Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s neighbor. She stated that on that evening about 20-30 neighbors were outside eating meat tacos, when people from across the street began starting problems with some neighbors and their friends. Individuals began saying that they wanted to fight, but  Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was not one of them.

When a fight did break out, Romero said that Mr. Vasquez-Munoz remained seated on the bed of his truck. The police then showed up, after the fight had ended, and immediately yelled at the group of people around the truck to get on the ground. Romero could only recall hearing police shouting “get on the ground” and saw them use a baton against an individual.

During the cross-examination, it was revealed that Romero’s children were good friends with Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s children.

In the People’s closing argument, DDA Shapiro said that this case exemplifies how dangerous a police officer’s job really is. He conjectured that the police officers involved acted reasonably, given the situation at hand. The officers knew weapons were involved but didn’t know who might have them.

It was a verbal and physical altercation in which someone with a red shirt and black shorts was supposedly involved. It was for these reasons that Shapiro argued Gill was lawfully performing his duties. Gill was following his training in attempting to diffuse the situation.

Mr. Shapiro also argued that Mr. Vasquez-Munoz’s refusal to comply with the first six commands by Officer Martinez to get on the ground was no accident and that, by failing to put his hands in the air, Mr. Vasquez-Munoz was obstructing the police officers’ investigation of which subject had a weapon. Furthermore, the defendant knew, or reasonably should have known, that Officer Gill was a police officer given the context of the situation.

The defense began their closing argument by indicating that, if officer Gill acted unlawfully, then Mr. Vasquez-Munoz cannot be found guilty of restricting or resisting arrest.

The question then becomes whether Gill was using unreasonable or excessive force. The defense argued that on this day Officer Gill went too far and that, in the heat of the moment, he made a mistake. All Mr. Vasquez-Munoz did that night was stand there – he did not run, make threats, or do anything else. However, he received severe injuries for just standing in one place. The defense rested its argument on calling to the jury to put a check on authority when it goes outside its bounds.

In the People’s rebuttal, Deputy DA Shapiro argued that Officer Gill acted as he was trained to act, given the description of the suspect and information that weapons were being used. Shapiro then stated that any law-abiding citizen in the defendant’s shoes would have gotten on the ground.

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