Can You Be a Police Officer With a Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Charge
This project is a collaboration of news organizations throughout California coordinated past the Investigative Reporting Programme at UC Berkeley and the Bay Area News Group. Reporters participated from more than 30 newsrooms, including MediaNews Group, McClatchy, Us Today Network, Vocalism of San Diego and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
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He shoved her to the ground, kneed her in the back and handcuffed her so she couldn't take their baby and exit, she told police. When she tried to get away, she said, he grabbed her pilus and pushed her face into the door frame.
Police photographed her bloated right eye for evidence.
But his actions that summer night in 2007 — and the domestic abuse, fake imprisonment and bombardment charges that followed — didn't cost Vidal "Dustin" Contreras his job.
The Kern County Sheriff's Deputy was immune to plead no contest to a single, far-less serious charge: disturbing another person "by loud and unreasonable racket." Non only did Contreras keep his bluecoat, he went on to be a human-trafficking detective with a troubling tape of investigating cases involving vulnerable women.
That's not so unusual, when information technology comes to domestic violence and cops in California.
A six-month investigation past a statewide coalition of news organizations establish cops who are defendant of committing a litany of violent behavior — leaving bloody marks on the arms of an elderly father, giving a girl a black eye, knocking a wife unconscious — routinely plead downward to nonviolent misdemeanors for disturbing the peace or vandalism or unreasonable noise. And those softer charges can permit abusive officers to keep their guns — and proceed enforcing the law in the Golden Land.
In the about extensive review of domestic violence amid cops in California, reporters uncovered the cases of more than than 80 police enforcement officers who were convicted in connexion with a domestic-corruption charge in the past decade. And that's just a fraction of what's out there, because the state's records on criminal conduct among cops are also flawed to illustrate the true scope of the trouble.
The cases touched every function of the state.
There was a San Francisco sheriff's deputy who kept his task after pleading down a domestic battery charge and then being arrested for driving drunk two weeks before the finish of his probation. There was a CHP officeholder who pleaded down a domestic violence charge to vandalism and not merely all the same patrols California's highways just served every bit the atomic number 82 investigator on an alleged domestic homicide. And in that location were multiple deputies with the L.A. sheriff's department who are still on the forcefulness after court records say they brutally harmed family members simply took plea deals for irenic misdemeanors.
Patricia Giggans, who chairs the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Civilian Oversight Commission, was indignant when presented with never-earlier-publicized details about L.A. deputies with abusive pasts yet on the force.
"Disturbing the peace?" she said, questioning one plea deal. "When you give a child a black eye, that's disturbing the peace?"
Troubling Patterns Sally
For some officers, an arrest came but after years of corruption allegations. And the review constitute others who work in the criminal justice organization sometimes minimized the crime.
"There is something broken with that organisation," said Rabeya Sen, president of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.
But how broken is information technology? Family violence stood out every bit the almost common crime outside of driving offenses in the news organizations' review of more than 600 criminal convictions against former or current police officers in the concluding decade. Unlike many states, California does null to inform the public when constabulary interruption the constabulary and lilliputian to preclude offenders from standing to be cops. Only many of the cases were revealed in a underground list that state officials created of thousands of current and former police officers and police force enforcement applicants who take been convicted of a crime.
The examination of court cases and months of interviews revealed officers not merely rarely spend time behind bars for domestic violence, they often receive special privileges considering of their law enforcement jobs and connections. Among the findings:
- Abusive officers routinely found ways around laws that could price them their jobs. Any person convicted of a felony or certain tearing misdemeanors loses the right to ain a gun, and for cops that means losing their jobs. Just more than than a tertiary of the officers facing domestic violence charges in the media coalition's exam took plea deals to lesser crimes that allowed them to continue their weapons, and almost 15 percent are still working in constabulary enforcement today. Reporters also found that judges used special exemptions for cops to let at least xiv officers keep their guns fifty-fifty though they were the bailiwick of restraining orders or violated laws that would have required them to give upwardly their firearms.
- Police departments let abusive officers keep working despite past corruption. More ii dozen of the convicted cops had a history of abuse allegations long before their arrests, and their departments oft knew almost it only kept them on the force. An 11-year veteran of the San Diego Police Section was investigated twice for domestic violence in recent years earlier pleading guilty this summer to felony set on with a firearm afterwards court records say he stuck a gun to his girlfriend's caput and asked her for a reason she "deserved to alive." A police chief in the Northern California town of Rio Dell hired his blood brother-in-police despite knowing he had a domestic-violence-related conviction — simply to see him fired six years later after he was arrested for battering some other girlfriend. "Maybe I fabricated a error," the one-time main said in an interview.
- Domestic abuse accusations against police rarely result in criminal charges, much less convictions. As difficult every bit it is to convict a cop of domestic abuse, about accusations fade before there are even charges. The news organizations surveyed the state's largest police force enforcement agencies and found criminal charges were rare even when internal reviews institute evidence of abuse. For example, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department sustained allegations in at least a third of the nearly 100 domestic violence cases against its officers from 2022 to 2019, and a dozen cases are still being reviewed. Yet only nine LA sheriff's deputies appear on the news organizations' list of cops with domestic-violence-related convictions over the concluding decade.
- Tolerance of officer abuse varies widely amidst California's police force enforcement agencies. While some departments acted swiftly and decisively — firing officers accused of domestic violence — other agencies offered abusive cops 2nd and fifty-fifty tertiary chances.
The disparity is as well evident in policies. The San Francisco Law Section worked with advocates several years ago to craft an aggressive policy addressing domestic violence amid its ranks, reviewing accused officers' access to confidential constabulary enforcement databases and weapons, and even barring officers from wearing uniforms or department gear in court. Just 12 of the xv largest departments in the state, including the California Highway Patrol, have no specific policies for treatment officer-involved domestic violence allegations or did non answer to requests for such records.
'3 Sides to Every Story'
The findings raised serious questions virtually the way police force treat domestic violence, a relentless trouble in communities throughout California.
Local police force enforcement responds to more than 160,000 calls a year involving domestic violence against adults, a effigy that has remained about unchanged for the last decade. Over that time, nearly ane,200 people, generally women, were murdered in California as a result of domestic violence, according to state data.
And while the research is limited, studies suggest that police enforcement officers are more likely to be involved in domestic violence than the general public.
And then what happens when a victim calls 911 and a cop with his own history of domestic violence shows up at the front door?
Constabulary officers like Douglas Swanson answer the telephone call with a special perspective. Every bit a Kern County Sheriff'southward deputy, Swanson was arrested twice over a iv-year flow later on domestic disputes, court records say. He was convicted the second time of disturbing the peace after a police study says he forced his girlfriend to the ground in a walk-in cupboard and tried to pull her wearing apparel off. Six years subsequently, he serves as a correctional officer and a reserve cop in the city of Taft where he said he frequently is chosen to domestic disputes.
"There'due south three sides to every story," Swanson said. "There'due south his side. There'southward her side, and then there's the truth."
Disturbing Indifference
Similar every one of the officers interviewed for this story, Swanson denied beingness an abuser and said he only took a plea to a lower charge to salvage his career. Without exception, the officers interviewed failed to accept responsibility, oftentimes blaming partners, prosecutors and even political opponents for fabricating the abuse.
Simply the news organizations' investigation revealed it's non just abusive cops who often evidence a disturbing indifference toward the criminal offence of domestic violence.
Consider the case of Riverside police Officeholder Brent Stewart, who dilapidated his married woman after a night of drinking in 2015. When his fellow officers arrived at his habitation, they constitute the door unlocked, their off-duty colleague gone and his wife on her back on the floor near a pile of laundry.
"I couldn't get him to stop hit me," she told them, virtually apologetically, when she came to, according to court records. Yet, Stewart's colleagues didn't arrest him when he returned home still stumbling and swaying. They let him get some water and an energy drink, then drove him to a sergeant'due south house to "slumber it off," court records said.
It was only after a supervisor reviewed what happened that the officers returned to arrest Stewart and confiscate his weapons. He was later charged and convicted of spousal abuse and possessing brass duke.
A spokesman for the department, Officer Ryan Railsback, insisted Riverside police did take the case seriously.
"There was an arrest that was made. There was a court process and there was a confidence," he said. "And that employee is no longer working for us."
Even when officers aren't themselves involved, evidence shows that constabulary sometimes minimize domestic violence. The Riverside Canton Sheriff's Department aggressively pursued subject field or fired at least 5 deputies in recent years for, in part, failing to fairly investigate and respond to domestic violence calls, according to disciplinary records.
One Riverside deputy responded to a call where a woman was strangled to the point she urinated on herself. But despite visible bruises he didn't write a study, the records bear witness, and the department determined he lied when he wrote a notation on the call that no assault occurred. Other officers from the department later conducted their own investigation and arrested the calumniating husband.
"To me it's embarrassing," said Lt. Chris Durham, a Riverside sheriff'south department spokesman who said his bureau spends a lot of fourth dimension preparation deputies on how to handle domestic violence, i of the about common calls they receive. "Information technology's our fundamental job to help and serve others. …Yous don't deserve to wear my compatible if you're non going to practise the basics."
But non all law enforcement leaders exhibited such a difficult line on domestic violence.
That's axiomatic in i of the state'south largest police force enforcement agencies — the Los Angeles Canton Sheriff's Department.
A Culture of Tolerance in L.A.?
Shortly after taking office in Dec, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva reinstated a deputy who had served on his campaign after beingness fired by the previous sheriff over domestic abuse allegations.
The move brought an outcry from the canton's Inspector General, L.A. county supervisors and the sheriff'due south Noncombatant Oversight Commission. Villanueva defended his decision during a commission meeting earlier this yr, insisting that even though Deputy Caren Carl Mandoyan had been establish culpable in an internal investigation, he was never charged with a criminal offense.
"We don't operate based on allegations," the sheriff said. "We operate based on fact, what can be established in a courtroom of constabulary."
The statement shocked Giggans, who has spent 40 years working to finish violence against women.
"Unless a court of law deemed someone guilty, it'south of no concern to this sheriff?" Giggans said in an interview. "I don't know of whatever workplace that functions like that."
In August a local judge temporarily overturned the rehiring. But even if that determination withstands additional legal wrangling, the news organizations' review constitute the LA sheriff's office has had a roster of other deputies not only accused but as well convicted in domestic-violence-related cases:
- Deputy Antonio Ramirez was charged in belatedly July with assaulting his 73-twelvemonth-quondam mother and then later resisting arrest while carrying a dagger. But it was far from the first time he had harmed a family member. He had a lengthy history of domestic violence allegations, including a ceremonious courtroom judgment and a criminal conviction in 2022 for battering a girlfriend.
- Deputy Jose Acero was charged with elderberry abuse later on allegedly grabbing his elderly father'due south arms then hard that it left bloody marks. In October 2017, he pleaded down to agonizing the peace. A calendar week later, his wife alleged in court papers xv years of verbal, emotional and physical corruption, including kick her when she was pregnant. Months after, a approximate modified the terms of Acero'south probation over the objection of a prosecutor who wrote in a court filing that Acero's behavior violated his obligation as "a deputy, a son, and a man being."
- Deputy Jorge Caamal was charged in 2022 with child abuse afterwards allegedly striking his teenage daughter several times over a four-year period. When she was 15, according to court records, she showed upward to school with a black heart, bloated lip, redness to her face and a cut in her ear. Caamal, a champion boxer, denied hit her and told police the bruising was probably makeup. He, too, ultimately pled downwardly to disturbing the peace and is still on the force.
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department declined multiple interview requests and refused to say how these officers are all the same employed. Ramirez is reportedly on unpaid exit as his new case unfolds, but the others are still on the payroll.
Amongst the deputies, just Caamal agreed to an interview. He insisted he was innocent despite his guilty plea, blaming a bitter custody dispute with his ex-wife and notwithstanding insisting his daughter used makeup to blacken her middle.
When asked nearly records that show the Riverside County Sheriff'due south Department responded to 10 calls for service at the family unit'south home between May 2022 and May 2016, including calls for a domestic dispute and child abuse, Caamal insisted he never hurt his girl. He even offered to have her call a reporter to say she made up the allegations.
"I love her. I forgive her," he said. "I was actually the victim in this."
A Special Kind of Torture
To exist certain, fifty-fifty domestic violence cases that don't involve cops are notoriously hard to prosecute. More than sixteen,000 such cases were referred to the Los Angeles Canton District Chaser's Function last year alone, but the role declined two-thirds of them. Experts say that'due south considering victims often reject to cooperate and prosecutors can have a tough time making charges stick if there are no visible injuries.
Prosecuting cops who abuse family unit members can be even more hard.
Reporters reached out to more a dozen women identified every bit victims in criminal domestic violence cases involving police force enforcement officers. Almost all declined to speak on the tape and asked that their names non be used. Their responses propose why abuse is so underreported, experts say, and why it'due south so hard to agree abusers accountable.
They said they lived in fright or wanted to protect their kids or felt guilty about what happened.
That's what makes Desiree Martinez unique.
In 2015, she took the almost unheard of step of filing a federal lawsuit confronting her abuser, a Clovis police officer named Kyle Pennington, and two different local departments for failing to protect her. She even held a news conference to send a message to other women in similar circumstances.
In an interview for this story, she described Pennington'south jealous rage during a weekend trip in 2013, when he slammed her confronting the wall, choked her and ripped the phone cord from the wall as she tried to call for help.
It didn't stop. Officers from Pennington'due south ain department responded to some other incident weeks later on. Martinez said she tried to tell them about the escalating abuse. But instead of taking her somewhere far from Pennington, they had her stand feet abroad from him, Martinez said. A female officer allegedly asked her to echo what she'd just told them, but Martinez froze considering her abuser was standing nearby.
"I was merely so scared and she was similar, 'So now you're not going to exist cooperative?'" Martinez said.
She described a special kind of torture beingness abused by a cop. She said he convinced her that he might exercise a sting operation on her — sending his police enforcement buddies to pretend to question her about corruption. If she made whatever accusations, he said he'd find out and kill her.
"I didn't want to say anything because I was just so scared," she said.
In a phone interview, Pennington denied abusing her. He pointed out that a jury acquitted him of some of the more than serious charges. But a jury did convict him of violating a restraining club, and he agreed to plead no contest to a misdemeanor corruption charge. He said he took the deal considering he couldn't afford to keep fighting the charges.
"In retrospect, I wish I had the money to take it back to trial," Pennington said.
Simply Martinez isn't letting information technology get. She'due south nevertheless pressing her lawsuit in courtroom and continues to tell her story in the hope police departments accept domestic violence more seriously.
"Violence hides in silence," Martinez said.
The Special Gun Exemption
Ana Marquez likewise survived an explosive relationship with an officer and said the experience taught her an unmistakable lesson on why cops oftentimes feel a sense of impunity for inflicting violence in their own homes: "They have more power."
Marquez'southward torment culminated on a violent night in 2022 when, courtroom records say, former Marina police force Officeholder Toney Canty allegedly attacked one of her daughters when she tried to bank check on her female parent who was just back from the hospital. The girl, Diana Reyes, described in an interview how Canty pushed her into a hallway and with 1 paw and a blank stare, high-strung her against a wall, only letting go when her younger brother called him the "devil." He was charged with misdemeanor battery, improperly storing firearms and child endangerment.
"If he was not a law officer," Ana Marquez said, "he would be in jail for what he did."
In an interview, Canty called the abuse "100 percent non truthful." He had left his law enforcement job before his abort, but was working as a firearms instructor and risked losing his right to own a gun for ten years. He ended up taking a plea deal to a bottom charge of false imprisonment and got to keep his weapons.
Merely Canty needed to take reward of however another privilege reserved for police and others who require guns for their jobs.
Typically, alleged abusers who are the subject area of either a civil restraining order or criminal protective order lose their correct to possess firearms. However, the news organizations' review constitute judges routinely grant cops exemptions in state law that let them to go on their weapons.
Canty received such an exemption to go along his vi guns when Marquez obtained a restraining order against him, arguing he needed them for his livelihood to train constabulary, security guards and others to employ firearms.
In granting it, the judge said, "I don't know that I tin can do anything else."
Diana Reyes had skipped form during her beginning semester at college to attend a hearing and remembers her shock that the system would permit her assaulter continue his weapons when most offenders would lose theirs.
"All the time," she said, "I worried that he was going to human action out on revenge."
In interviews, lawyers and judges say in that location is no question that judges freely grant such exemptions, merely there is enough of contend almost whether those exemptions should be. San Mateo County District Chaser Steve Wagstaffe is convinced they should not.
"They've chosen a career that requires a trust from the customs," he said of police enforcement officers. "When that trust is breached, I don't call up there is any alibi. I remember they accept forfeited that right."
A Different Picture Emerges
Constabulary confiscated Vidal Contreras' .40-quotient Glock 22 law service pistol and other weapons the night he was arrested after handcuffing his girlfriend and allegedly injuring her eye. But he kept his right to deport a firearm by pleading down his domestic violence charges to a nonviolent misdemeanor.
He was ordered to nourish a 52-week parenting class and serve two years of probation.
His victim declined an interview. But Contreras' attorney Ken Yuwiler said recently: "Sometimes in the estrus of the moment people brand allegations that aren't true. This 1 wasn't true."
Contreras' abort appears to take never been publicized or reported in the local media and he has gone on to build a public profile over the years as a community leader who became the co-manager of a countywide coalition to combat man trafficking.
Just behind the scenes, another picture has emerged of Contreras' work.
The detective was placed on administrative leave in Feb 2017, according to an internal Kern County DA's memo filed equally part of a high-contour torture-kidnapping case, which is now in turmoil over questions most Contreras'due south brownie.
The reason for his discipline is not spelled out in the filings merely three people with direct knowledge of the case and other records obtained for this story propose that Contreras was letting cases pile up — leaving young women and children to endure.
The Sheriff declined to comment. Contreras did not reply to an interview request.
A discipline review commission in December 2022 sustained numerous allegations against Contreras, records testify, including neglect of duty, dishonesty and incompetence and recommended he be fired.
But that didn't toll him his job.
He's yet on the force. And earlier this year, the Kern Canton Board of Supervisors praised him during "Human Trafficking Sensation Month." One supervisor even singled out his "commitment to helping some of the world's most vulnerable human beings."
It'due south an prototype that has endured for years despite the conviction against Contreras filed away in the Kern County courthouse that law accountability advocates like San Jose'south old independent police accountant LaDoris Cordell say should have been dealt with more severely in the beginning place.
"This case," she said, "is a disturbing case of how our laws, prosecutors and judges have reduced to piffling more than than an afterthought the domestic-violence victims of sworn officers."
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Source: https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/public-safety/police-officers-who-commit-domestic-violence-often-get-to-keep-their-guns/
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