D.A.’s office appeals decision to toss Costa Mesa officers’ testimony

Costa Mesa police and the Orange County district attorney’s office are pushing back against a defense attorney’s allegations that a group of officers illegally detained a 20-year-old man, unnecessarily Tasered him and then lied about the incident.

In 2014, police arrested Alexander Sorto outside of a Costa Mesa doughnut shop, where they’d been called to break up a fight.

Sorto wasn’t involved in the scuffle and left the shop when it broke out, but police alleged Sorto pushed an officer and then ran when they tried to stop him for questioning.

Prosecutors charged Sorto with one count of battery on a peace officer and three counts of resisting arrest — all misdemeanors.

Sorto’s attorney, David Swanson, however, claimed he had dash camera video and an audio recording from a nearby police cruiser that contradicted officers’ account of the incident.

After hearing Swanson’s arguments last month, Superior Court Judge Mary Kreber Varipapa barred two of the four officers involved in the arrest from testifying at Sorto’s trial.

Without their testimony, prosecutors said they had no case and dropped the charges.

But prosecutors and police have swung back.

On July 14, the district attorney’s office filed an appeal, calling Varipapa’s decision erroneous.

And on Wednesday, police released a previously undisclosed interview with Sorto in which he says he pushed a police officer before being tackled and Tased. The Daily Pilot listened to the recording.

In the interview with a Costa Mesa police sergeant, Sorto said he’d left the doughnut shop and was standing some distance away from the building, when an officer approached him and indicated he wanted to talk.

“I was scared, and I just didn’t really want to comment on it, and he kind of charged me,” Sorto said on the recording. “I got more scared reflexed and pushed him through.”

He later clarifies that he sidestepped the officer and pushed him away as he “charged.”

The officer, Sorto said, was off-balance and ended up on the ground.

During pretrial testimony, Walk described the incident, saying he put his hands on Sorto’s shoulders from behind, at which point Sorto spun away and pushed him in the chest, according to court documents.

Swanson claims a voice recorder captured Walk describing the incident differently immediately after it happened. He reportedly tells another officer he tried to put Sorto in a headlock but missed and fell when Sorto spun away.

Sorto says in the interview that after the push, he was then quickly hit in the leg with a baton and Tasered.

“Did you hear nobody tell you you were going to be based?” the sergeant asks.

“No, not at all,” he replies.

Costa Mesa police explained that the interview was part of a standard internal investigation performed after any use of force by officers.

Because the interview was for internal purposes, it wasn’t used as evidence in the case against Sorto and not revealed to prosecutors or Sorto’s attorney, according to police.

According to court documents, Sorto also said he pushed the officer during a separate interview that was turned over to the lawyers.

Swanson argues Sorto only made the admission because he’d already been hit with a baton and Tasered, but police contend the second interview corroborates the admission.

What may be more crucial is Swanson’s contention that police never had the right to detain Sorto. If that’s true, it would negate any charge of battery on a peace officer because the officer was acting outside the scope of his legal duties, according to Swanson.

Officer Christopher Walk, who appraoched Sorto, claims he saw him run from the doughnut shop, prompting him to become suspicious, according to court documents.

Swanson said dash-camera footage from a police cruiser contradicts this, showing Walk standing in front of the doughnut shop for a time with Sorto nowhere in sight.

In the recorded interview, Sorto too says he was confused about why the officer stopped him.

“I was away from the scene,” he said. “I thought to myself, there’s no reason for them to kind of connect me to this.”

Walk was one of the officers Varipapa barred from testifying.

After her decision, prosecutors told Varipapa that they could not proceed because their entire case stemmed from the original interaction with Walk, so the judge dismissed the charges.

The district attorney’s office declined to detail why they filed the appeal calling it “a normal procedural step.”