New video shows an Orange County deputy hitting a drunk suspect, and now, some people are questioning if it is excessive force.
CNN talked to the public defender in this case who says the deputy was too violent.
But the sheriff’s department says he was just doing his job.
An Orange County deputy struggled with an intoxicated man inside a jeep. Dashcam video shows the deputy punch him in the face several times before he falls to the ground.
A concerned citizen asked them to check on Mohamed Sayem, who was sleeping in his car behind the corner pocket bar in Stanton.
“There should be no punches to the face,” Public Defender Scott Sanders said. “He was incredibly intoxicated. There was no reason for force or violence here.”
Sanders argues that his client did not try to push past the deputy to get out of the car.
He says the felony resisting and deterring charge Sayem now faces is as excessive as the force used against him.
He also says the deputy changed his story about Sayem’s behavior several times.
“Don’t create a new false set of facts and then blame it on the defendant,” Sanders said.
In a written statement, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department responded in part:
“The deputy made every attempt to de-escalate the situation and provide the subject multiple opportunities to simply provide his identification. The subject refused to do so and attempted to physically engage the deputy, during which the deputy used force appropriate for the situation to gain control of an uncooperative, assaultive and intoxicated person.”
“I can see it from both sides, but I still think the guy in the car was an idiot,” business owner Mary Zabrowski said.
The owner of the Corner Pocket Bar says she didn’t see Sayem inside that night but that the video of the confrontation looked bad for deputies and the man who admittedly drank too much.
“They were both wrong,” Zabrowski said. “He should have showed him his ID, but the cops were a little excessive there, yes.”
The sheriff’s department says the deputy’s report was consistent with what they saw on the dash cam video.