Officers feared for their safety in Kelly Thomas struggle, reports show

Two former police officers accused of beating a homeless man to death said they feared for their safety and rapidly ran out of options on how to control the man, who they said seemed to possess such remarkable strength during the struggle that one officer was convinced he must be on drugs.

In their reports written after the 2011 beating of Kelly Thomas, the two officers said the homeless man seemed oblivious to their efforts and didn’t stop fighting even after they repeatedly used a stun gun on him.

One of the officers said he later used the non-lethal weapon to smack the mentally ill man in the face and head.

As the fight wore on, and backup officers poured into downtown Fullerton, then-Officer Jay Cicinelli wrote that, in a last-ditch effort to get an upper hand on Thomas, he urged another officer to “choke him out.”

Thomas was comatose and showed signs of cardiac arrest when he arrived at the hospital after the struggle. He died five days later after being taken off life support.

The personal accounts of Cicinelli and Manuel Ramos are contained in two police reports that became public only this week when they were attached to a motion filed during the criminal trial of the two officers.

Ramos is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, Cicinelli with involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force. Neither took the witness stand during the trial, which won’t go before a jury until next year.

“I was shocked by his strength, and the amount of resistance he displayed,” Ramos wrote. “I was in fear that if I allowed Thomas to regain his footing, or unable to get him handcuffed, he was going to hurt me or Officer [Joseph] Wolfe.”

The Times reported that the officers were allowed to watch the video of the incident before writing their reports to refresh their memories and write an accurate account of the incident. That practice, however, is at odds with how other police departments deal with serious use-of-force cases.

Ramos and Wolfe were responding to a call of someone trying to open car doors at a Fullerton bus depot. In his report, Ramos said he recognized Thomas immediately from previous encounters.

Wolfe, who faces involuntary manslaughter charges, will be tried separately.

After questioning Thomas the night of the 2011 incident about his name and what he was doing, Ramos said he put his right hand on the back of Thomas’ left arm to move his hands toward his knees. He said Thomas swatted his arm and began to walk away.

“As Thomas was walking away he faced me and took an aggressive stance, which caused me to believe he was preparing to assault me,” Ramos wrote. “He began swatting his left hand and arm at me, but did not strike me. I struck Thomas with my baton on his left lower thigh once.”

Moments later Wolfe and Ramos were struggling with Thomas, who was facedown on the ground. Ramos said he had his upper body on top of Thomas, who began to push himself off the ground and lift the officer up.

Cicinelli, who arrived after Ramos placed two calls for backup, said he encountered a violent Thomas struggling with officers on the ground. Ramos and Wolfe were breathing heavily and seemed to be exhausted, he said.

Cicinelli said he struck Thomas twice on his head with his knee, but he only seemed to fight back harder. Cicinelli then used his Taser on Thomas four times.

Thomas then attempted to take the Taser from Cicinelli’s hand but failed, the officer wrote.

“Thomas’ stamina and strength led me to believe that he was under the influence of some type of illegal narcotic,” Cicinelli wrote.

A toxicology report found that Thomas had no drugs in his system the night of the incident.

After hitting Thomas “multiple” times in the face and head with his stun gun, Cicinelli said, “I saw that blood began to run from Thomas’ face area and he began to slowly stop resisting.”

Lawyers representing Cicinelli and Ramos said the officers were dealing with a man so violent and out of control that they were forced to repeatedly call for backup. In his opening statements, John Barnett, who is representing Ramos, said the officers never used excessive force.

But prosecutors maintain the two officers went far beyond what is acceptable “in a free society” and used excessive force.

The motion, which includes the two police reports, is an attempt by prosecutors to get personnel records for Ramos and Cicinelli to rebut a Fullerton police officer’s testimony that he saw no department violations in the video.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Dec. 27.

adolfo.flores@latimes.com