Sheriff Disputes Beating Claims in Taped Fracas

San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell on Tuesday disputed allegations that deputies brutalized five Mexican nationals during an altercation in Victorville that was videotaped.

Tidwell’s account of the confrontation was drawn from an internal Sheriff’s Department investigation, as well as scrutiny of a copy of the videotape provided to investigators.

Separately, the FBI has begun its own investigation of the incident.

“We’ve had an allegation of a civil rights violation and we are looking into it,” said FBI spokesman Fred Reagan.

But Tidwell’s conclusion that the deputies did not use excessive force in their scuffle with boisterous party-goers differed dramatically from that of Latino community leaders who provided the four-minute videotape and insisted that the Mexicans were kicked and clubbed without provocation.

“The officers used the proper amount of force,” Tidwell said at a news conference. “If you want to see brutality in the video you will see it. But if you look at it with an open mind and view it carefully, you will not see brutality.”

The crux of the dispute centers around events that led up to the confrontation recorded June 30 by an onlooker with a video camera.

Tidwell said his deputies responded to a neighbor’s complaint of a loud party where men were said to be urinating and throwing beer cans into an adjacent yard. Before the video was turned on, Tidwell said, one of the men “shoved a deputy in the chest” and they both “went down to the ground” in a scuffle. The same deputy “felt someone trying to get his gun” and “it was an adversarial situation from that point on,” Tidwell said.

Latino leaders have said that the videotape shows a deputy striking a handcuffed man. But Tidwell said the deputy struck the man “with the back of his hand . . . between the shoulder blades” in an effort to break his grip on a porch railing.

Struck With Baton

Critics also said that the deputies struck the man in the legs three times with a baton as they dragged him away from the house by his feet.

“An officer did strike at the subject three times,” Tidwell said. But two of the strikes missed their mark, he said.

“The point is, when you meet an officer with resistance, you are going to be met with more resistance,” Tidwell said. “That’s what the community expects. That’s what I expect.”

Only one of the men, Jose Serrano, 27, who rented the house, was charged with a crime: resisting arrest and possession of a small amount of cocaine, Tidwell said. Four others were arrested and later released, he said.

‘They Twisted It’

Latino community leaders said they were not surprised by Tidwell’s interpretation of the videotape.

“In the past, we have given them information about similar incidents of brutality and they twisted it and distorted it,” said Maria Anna Gonzales, spokeswoman for a San Bernardino civil rights group called the Institute for Social Justice.

Attorney Carlos Juarez, who is representing all of the men in a $10-million claim brought against the county and sheriff’s deputies in the incident, argued that “it was premature of Tidwell to make these statements.”

“I don’t believe all of the victims have been interviewed by the Sheriff’s Department,” Juarez said. “The allegation that one of the men struck an officer is unfounded. That individual was never charged for such a thing.”

Alleges False Arrest

Juarez said the claim was filed Monday with the clerk of the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors claims that “these officers unlawfully came on the property of the individuals, battered and falsely arrested them causing injuries. It also claims violation of their civil rights.”

Tidwell said the department’s internal investigation of the deputies’ conduct is closed.