Arleta Dispute : 36 Party-Goers Claim Officers Assaulted Them

Thirty-six people who attended a baptismal party in Arleta accused the Los Angeles Police Department of brutality Thursday for allegedly assaulting them without reason after responding to a noise complaint.

Describing the April 1 incident as one of the worst examples of police brutality he had ever seen, attorney Leon P. Gilbert said he would file 36 claims against the city next week. Gilbert said he expected the City Council to routinely reject the claims. But he said the families involved are ready to file a lawsuit.

“I’ve handled a lot of police brutality suits here and this time there’s no deaths or anything, it’s true,” Gilbert said. “But this is the worst I’ve seen in terms of men, women and children being attacked in their own home, dragged by their hair.”

Photographs taken by a family member shortly after the incident showed party-goers with missing teeth and bruised shoulders, arms and legs. Gilbert said many of the injuries occurred as people left the house through the front door. He said 20 or 30 officers lined up with batons and hit anyone who emerged.

But Capt. Valentino Paniccia of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division said officers responding to a noise complaint shortly before midnight were cursed and threatened by the party-goers. The officers called for help, he said, and then began making arrests.

“Supervisors watched the formal arrest and said there was no misconduct,” Paniccia said. “Arrests were handled without incident and without battery . . . except in self-defense.”

Regarding the alleged battery on children, Paniccia explained that “when we would grab the father or the uncle or the buddy, everybody would jump on. There was no intent to injure anybody.”

Paniccia said only about 10 officers were involved and several of them were injured as well. One had a tooth broken, he said, and several were punched, scratched and kicked.

Seven people were taken from the house in patrol cars and later six of them were arrested on misdemeanor charges of battering police officers. Eleven were treated for injuries at Olive View Medical Center, Gilbert said.

Agustin Chavez, whose 20-month-old daughter, Crystal, was baptized the day of the party, said the abuse began soon after the officers appeared at the back gate that night. He said no one threatened the officers, but several people demanded to know why they had been called and whether they had a search warrant.

“One of the officers said, ‘this is your warrant,’ and they hit one guy in the chest and the face with a stick,” said Ramon Guillen, Chavez’s brother-in-law.

Part of the confusion may have arisen from the large number of people living in the Arleta house, Guillen said. In all, Agustin Chavez; his brother, Alejandro, and about 10 other party-goers live there, he said. So when police asked them to disperse, he said, they went inside the house.

But, Guillen said, police followed them inside and began kicking in doors that remain pitted, splintered and loose on their hinges.

Paniccia said police reports indicate that some of the people suspected of hitting officers ran inside to hide, and the officers followed them to arrest them.

“The doors were either locked or being held shut,” Paniccia said. “When someone’s running from you, they’re not going to let you in.”