SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A third Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy has been placed on leave for allegedly bribing a homeless couple after a beating that occurred in San Francisco’s Mission District last year.
On Nov. 12, 2015, 29-year-old Stanislav Petrov, who allegedly had stolen a car, was beaten by two deputies with batons. The video that was released sparked an investigation about whether they used excessive force on the man.
The two men shown in the video were put on leave and now a third deputy, who is a 19-year veteran of the department, has been put on leave after he was accused of trying to bribe a homeless couple for their discretion with a gold necklace and cash.
Attorneys for a man brutally beaten by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies in San Francisco last year filed a complaint against the county Tuesday seeking monetary damages for what they called “the worst law enforcement beating we’ve seen on video since Rodney King.”
Attorneys Michael Haddad and Julia Sherwin filed the complaint on behalf of Petrov.
The attorneys allege the department engaged in a “vast cover up” that was exposed only because surveillance video of the incident was obtained by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and released publicly the following day.
They argued that Petrov was trying to surrender when the deputies tackled him to the ground, hitting him more than 40 times with their batons with many of the blows falling on his head. In deputies Luis Santamaria and Paul Wieber’s written reports released last week, they said they feared Petrov was about to ambush them.
Regarding those reports, Haddad said, “They clearly appear to be trying to explain the unexplainable and defend the indefensible.”
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern confirmed Tuesday that those reports, written four days after the incident, were written after the video became public and sheriff’s investigators found the deputies’ initial reports did not account for the severity of Petrov’s injuries.
The deputies had been on scheduled days off in the days between the two reports were written. They were called into the office and, with the help of counsel, revised their reports and then were placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of criminal and internal affairs investigations.
“Those deputies are responsible for every word in that report,” Ahern said, and if they’re not being truthful, they “will be terminated.”
A third deputy has been placed on administrative leave since allegations surfaced that after the beating, he stole a gold chain from Petrov and gave it to two homeless people who had witnessed the incident.
“After the beating, one of the beaters went up to the witnesses and said, ‘I hope you enjoyed the show,’ and one of the deputies handed them a valuable gold chain and money they had stolen from Stanislav, and we believe that they were trying to bribe these witnesses into silence,” Petrov’s attorney Haddad said.
That deputy has not been identified, but Ahern said he has 20 years of experience with the department.
Ahern said that after learning of theft and bribery allegations, he notified San Francisco police they should be looking into those aspects of the incident. San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak declined to comment on any specific allegations saying, “any allegations of criminal conduct would be investigated.”
Haddad and Sherwin also accused another sheriff’s deputy of taking a “trophy photo,” but while at least one deputy is clearly visible taking a photo in the video, Ahern called it “evidentiary.”
But the attorneys said it was the second case in their experience where sheriff’s deputies have taken a “trophy photo.” The other case was Martin Harrison, an inmate at Santa Rita Jail who died in custody in 2010.
Haddad and Sherwin represented Harrison’s children in a civil suit that the county settled for $8.3 million. Petrov suffered several broken bones in the beating.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has launched a formal investigation after surveillance video was released.
Now, the investigation has revealed that another deputy, unrelated in the alleged beating, took items from Petrov’s car and gave it to a homeless couple that was near the scene. He did this reportedly to keep them from saying anything about what they saw.
The video, released by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office on Twitter, shows two deputies striking a man on the ground repeatedly with batons after a pursuit.
In a subsequent tweet the public defender’s office describes the video as “shocking and brutal.” The caption on the 13-minute video states that it comes from surveillance cameras that record in 10-second increments with gaps in between, “So the beating was actually twice as long as what is shown.”WARNING: Some of the below images contain graphic contentMOBILE USERS VIEW THE PHOTO GALLERY HERE (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES)
Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said Friday evening that the department had been alerted to the video shortly after it was posted online and had immediately started an internal affairs investigation into the incident.
“We’re going to do a complete and thorough investigation into this incident and figure it out,” Kelly said. Kelly said the capture and arrest shown in the video occurred early Thursday morning after a pursuit that started in San Leandro around 1:30 a.m.
Deputies had been patrolling a hotel parking lot in the 17200 block of Foothill Boulevard in San Leandro when they spotted a stolen 2015 Mercedes C300 sedan, Kelly said.
When they approached the vehicle, the suspect inside started the car, ignored orders to stop and allegedly rammed two police cars, injuring one deputy and disabling his patrol vehicle, Kelly said.
The suspect then led deputies on a chase on Interstate Highway 580 into Oakland and then west toward San Francisco, crossing the Bay Bridge at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, Kelly said. He exited the freeway in San Francisco, struck a parked car on a city street and fled on foot before his capture, which was captured on the video seen.
Deputies detained Stanislav Petrov, who was taken to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment.
Ahern said that the sheriff’s office “was hurt by a lot of what went on that evening,” and that his deputies have been disturbed by watching the video.
In response, the sheriff’s office is conducting an extensive review of its use of force policies, Ahern said.
So far they have compiled lengthy reports identifying best practices from a nationwide review of police policies and all deputies in the department have received new training on use of force. But Ahern reiterated
that the allegations against the deputies are not allowed in the department’s policy.
“Our policies don’t include excessive beating, taking jewelry or bribing witnesses,” Ahern said.
One change that Ahern made immediately is that all deputies are required to turn on their body cameras. While the department’s body camera policy has so far allowed deputies discretion over when to turn on their cameras, those days are over, Ahern said.
No deputies involved in the incident that night initially said they had activated their body cameras, but some footage turned up on one of the deputies’ body camera after he turned it in to investigators, Ahern said.
That footage was turned over to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office is looking for a new body camera provider, one with more storage space that might include features like
turning on or uploading video automatically. Once the sheriff’s office decides what cameras to use, it will roll out a comprehensive new body camera policy.
Deputies “will activate and wear body worn cameras or they will be terminated,” Ahern warned, except in cases involving certain exceptional privacy concerns, such as when interacting with juveniles or when dealing with sexual assault victims.
The sheriff’s office’s own investigation into the beating has been stalled as they await the conclusion of the criminal investigation in San Francisco. For that reason, internal affairs investigators have interviewed neither the deputies involved in the beating nor Petrov.
But Ahern said the department will conduct a thorough investigation, saying that a number of deputies at the scene will be interviewed, and others could be facing discipline for not stopping the deputies’ conduct or if they made statements that covered up misconduct.
Deputies are trained to stop unlawful conduct, and there were three other deputies who could face discipline as they witnessed the beating but did nothing. Three other deputies were in the alley at the time.
“I guarantee you we will fully investigate this from start to finish,” Ahern said.
The district attorney’s office has not filed any criminal charges in the case. Asked to comment, district attorney’s spokesman Alex Bastian said, “As with every case that comes into this office, we must be sure that a thorough investigation has been conducted so that justice is done.”Bay City News contributed to this report.