Were Deputies Too Rough in Closing Party? Probe Under Way

It was midnight on the Fourth of July, and 12 sheriff’s deputies were moving in to close down a crowded party at a beachfront home in northern Del Mar.

Gary Wedbush, 22, stood under the stars on the edge of the throng, preparing to leave. According to Wedbush, whose account is disputed by deputies, this is what happened next:

A deputy suddenly grabbed Wedbush’s younger brother by the hair and arms and “began jerking him around violently.” Alarmed, Wedbush protested: “Officer, officer, please, we just want to go home.”

Out of nowhere came another deputy’s fist, which struck Wedbush in the face. Then the UCLA senior was grabbed from behind and held while a third officer approached with a German shepherd, urging “In boy, in boy.” The dog obeyed, biting Wedbush repeatedly on the feet and legs.

Wrenching one arm loose, Wedbush hit the dog on the snout. The biting stopped, but two deputies pushed Wedbush over a 6-foot seawall onto the beach and began striking him with billy clubs. Then the dog returned to the fray. His jaws found flesh several times more before Wedbush was handcuffed and loaded, bruised and bleeding, into a police van.

After a visit to Scripps Hospital in Encinitas, where he received 14 stitches for a head wound and dog bites, Wedbush was booked into Vista jail. The charges? Two felony counts of assaulting an officer and attempting to free a prisoner.

Gary Wedbush is among more than a dozen partygoers who have come forward since July 4 with allegations that sheriff’s deputies stepped beyond the limits of acceptable conduct that night.

With vivid descriptions of scenes that seem strangely at odds with Del Mar’s reputation as an inviting tourist mecca, Wedbush and others assert that deputies, acting without provocation, used excessive force and brutal tactics in their zeal to break up what was an otherwise harmonious holiday gathering.

Their protests, a handful of which have been formalized through official administrative complaints to the department, have prompted the sheriff’s Internal Affairs Division to launch an investigation into deputies’ handling of the Independence Day celebration, which resulted in nine arrests, mostly for failure to disperse.

In addition, the party’s hosts, several guests and their parents last week appeared before the Del Mar City Council, expressing outrage over the law enforcement tactics and requesting that city officials open a separate inquiry into the episode. Council members declined, agreeing to wait for a formal report on the matter from the Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s officials were reluctant to comment specifically on the allegations pending completion of the internal investigation. But the commander of the Encinitas substation, which provides service to Del Mar under contract, conceded that he is “very concerned” about the charges.

“We take complaints about the conduct of a deputy sheriff very seriously,” Capt. William Knowles said. “The allegations that concern me the most are those involving any injury to an arrested person. Those are troubling charges.”

Knowles said the public uproar about the party constitutes the “worst negative experience” for the Encinitas substation since he took over as commander two years ago.

Beyond allegations against the department simmers a broader issue that has plagued Del Mar’s north beach area for years. The neighborhood, carved by narrow, densely populated streets and graced with a prime stretch of sand, is home to an incongruous mix of carefree seasonal renters and wealthy homeowners who prize their solitude year-round.

Longtime residents say the seasonal tenants, many of them students at UC San Diego who live six and seven to a home, host large, raucous parties that violate their right to a peaceful existence. The students, meanwhile, say they respect their neighbors’ complaints but nonetheless have a right to socialize.

Last year the homeowners, weary of the noise, traffic and property damage associated with the revelry, reached the end of their rope. They urged the council to form a crime prevention committee designed, among other things, to recommend solutions to the neighborhood’s woes.

One measure stressed by the committee, which issued its report in May, recommended tougher law enforcement geared toward ridding Del Mar of its reputation as a “party town.” Although they have yet to adopt the committee’s recommendations, some council members concede that sheriff’s deputies may already be responding to the new direction, cracking down on parties with increased vigor.

“The council did say we don’t want Del Mar to be known as a party town and we won’t ignore this kind of disruptive behavior in our community any longer,” Councilman Scott Barnett said. “I believe the sheriffs got the message. They realized we no longer want a laissez-faire approach to these parties, and we no longer intend to turn our backs on unruly behavior.”

Nonetheless, neither council members nor residents objecting to the parties appear comfortable with the methods allegedly employed by the deputies on July 4, although Barnett said that until he sees evidence to the contrary, he must assume deputies had reason to use such force.

“I believe we need a tougher stand against these parties because residents who live here full time have a right to some peace and quiet,” Councilman John Gillies said. “But we do not need violence like we saw on July 4. My feeling at this point is that the sheriffs overreacted. I don’t want to see that again.”

Partygoers and sheriff’s deputies have widely different accounts of the holiday party at 1808 Ocean Front, which began as a college graduation celebration for Ron Fletcher, whose family owns several homes on the block.

Although deputies normally break up a party in response to complaints by neighbors, that was not the case July 4, when patrol officers merely observed the revelry and determined it was “definitely a party beyond reasonable control,” Knowles said.

The captain said deputies made “the appropriate judgment” to close down the party because “a series of misdemeanor violations were evident,” including violation of the city’s noise ordinance and drinking by minors.

In an “after-action report” on the event, Sgt. R. Stephenson described the crowd as numbering as many as 500 and said guests were “littering the neighbor’s yards, yelling and screaming, shooting off firecrackers” and disturbing the entire neighborhood. Partygoers, however, estimated the crowd at about 200 and said it was orderly, though the music was loud.

According to Stephenson, deputies waited 15 minutes after issuing their first of four orders to disperse before moving in to clear the scene. Partygoers say they heard at most one order to disperse and maintain that deputies moved into the crowd swinging clubs about two minutes after that order was issued.

The sheriff’s report goes on to say that the homeowner refused to assist by informing his guests the party was over. Host Russ Fletcher angrily denies that contention, saying he asked guests to leave over the disc jockey’s audio system and then was “threatened” by a deputy who ordered him to “keep off that loudspeaker.”

Accounts also conflict with regard to Wedbush’s experience. The sheriff’s report says Wedbush attacked the deputy who was attempting to arrest his younger brother, Eric. Wedbush says he merely spoke to the officer and was careful to make no threatening moves. Stephenson reported that “a small laceration” on Wedbush’s head resulted from a fall from the sea wall. Wedbush says he was pushed over the wall and struck on the head with a billy club.

Deputies also maintain that the crowd threatened them, chanted “Sagon Penn, Sagon Penn,” and hurled beer bottles and firecrackers at them. Six witnesses told The Times they saw no such provocation.

“The bottom line is, the deputies moved in with that dog and started swinging their clubs like madmen before anybody even had a chance to disperse,” said Jim Thomas, 20, a college student who said he was struck below the ribs with a club while backing away from the crowd.

“The police incited a riot. They imported the violence. I’ll tell you, it was very disillusioning,” said Thomas, who said he intends to file a formal complaint with the department.

When Edward Wedbush learned that his two sons had been arrested and one injured during the break-up of a beach party, he assumed partygoers had taunted, cursed or in some other manner provoked the deputies. A stockbroker who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, Edward Wedbush said he has always had great confidence in the law enforcement officers.

Now, after interviewing more than a dozen witnesses, young and old, his opinion has changed.

“After everything I’ve heard, I have developed a very broad concern about the professionalism and decorum of the Sheriff’s Department,” Edward Wedbush said. “At first I thought the officers were provoked. Then I thought we were dealing with five or six deputies who had had a bad day, who were over stressed.

“Now I believe the whole department deserves a thorough review.”

In addition to his son Gary’s injuries, Edward Wedbush said he is alarmed that his son Eric was apparently “punished” for leaning over to check on his brother’s injuries while both were sitting in handcuffs waiting to be driven to jail.

Eric Wedbush, 19, said he leaned over to inspect his brother’s bleeding head wound when an officer came up, “grabbed my hair and sweat shirt and dragged me across the pavement. Then he took his boot, put it on my throat and pushed me onto my back.”

The deputy lifted the boot and Eric Wedbush sat up, he said. The deputy then kicked him in the chest, Eric Wedbush recalls.

Gary Wedbush said his torment continued once he was in custody. At both the Encinitas substation and the Vista jail, deputies mimicked barking noises and taunted him.

“Some of them even barked and howled over their squad car P.A. system,” Wedbush said. “My parents taught me to respect authority, but this whole incident has undermined any respect or trust I had toward the officers. When I see a green and white car now I get very frightened. I think, who’s going to police the police?”

According to students who live in the north beach area, July 4th was not the first time that the sheriffs allegedly used excessive force to break up a party. Terry Beckerman said a party she attended on June 28 was “broken up with force that looked like something out of South Africa.”

“They stormed in, used profanity and started swinging their clubs around with absolutely no warning,” said Beckerman, 23, a UCSD senior, who was struck and told by a deputy to “get the (expletive) out of here.”

“We would have left peacefully, no problem. But there wasn’t time. They started banging on innocent people. It’s shocking to me that this is going on in Del Mar in the 20th Century.”

Rosalind Lorwin, a former mayor of Del Mar and resident of the north beach area for 21 years, was not in town on the Fourth of July. But she has seen plenty of parties, and she believes the inherent life style conflict between students and homeowners in the popular neighborhood has grown more tense in recent years.

Part of the problem comes from UC San Diego, which toughened its alcohol policy last year, prompting students to move much of their celebrating off campus, she said. Also, vacationers in town for the fair or racing season contribute to the problem, Lorwin said.

“It’s a problem that’s aggravated by numbers, and it seems to me we’re getting more and more people who have a tenuous link with the community and are only interested in exploiting it,” said Lorwin, a member of the Del Mar crime prevention committee.

According to the crime committee’s report, the “transient rental population” in the beach area has helped strip the neighborhood of its “quaint” and “charming” village flavor and instead saddled Del Mar with “its widely accepted legend as the Party Town.”

Loud parties with live bands, some of which charge admission, stretch until early morning hours, luring outsiders who urinate in homeowners’ yards, park illegally, vandalize private property and generally disrupt life in the area, the report says.

Noting that other beach towns--Newport Beach, for example--have taken strong measures to crack down on raucous behavior, the committee recommends numerous measures to restore order to this “war zone” at the beach. These include curfews for teen-agers, revised zoning ordinances to prohibit so-called “minidorms,” a ban on alcohol on the beach after sunset and a rental policy under which landlords of houses declared “public nuisances” could be fined.

More generally, the report recommends that sheriff’s deputies more strictly enforce noise and drinking ordinances already on the books, a step most council members endorse.

“No one wants to see the sheriffs use violence, but the young people have got to understand that when large parties get out of control, it is unfair to others in the neighborhood,” said Councilwoman Brooke Eisenberg. “The kids want to live in Del Mar. The challenge is to make them feel a part of the community and have a stake in it.”

One proposal that Eisenberg hopes will do just that is the call for formation of a Neighborhood Watch foundation in Del Mar. Eisenberg believes the group could encourage communication between neighbors toward a common goal of protecting the community.

Moreover, Eisenberg hopes to see the group “draft a pamphlet setting rules and describing the tone of Del Mar, which could be distributed to Realtors, tenants and homeowners. That would get the message out about what our community is about.”

Meanwhile, Gary Wedbush is due in court Aug. 6. His charges have been reduced to misdemeanors and he intends to plead innocent. In his complaint filed with the Sheriff’s Department, Wedbush vowed to “pursue the highest form of redress possible” for the actions that left him injured July 4.

“That may ultimately mean a lawsuit. I’ve thought about it,” Wedbush said. “But what I really want is for no one else to have to go through this sort of thing again. It’s just not right.”