COUNTYWIDE : Marshals Exonerate Deputy in Scuffle

The county marshal’s office has exonerated a bailiff who was accused of manhandling a Vietnamese interpreter in a back hallway of the courthouse in Santa Ana.

Deputy Marshal Richard H. Emmons, who is a bailiff to Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, was cleared of wrongdoing in an Oct. 17 scuffle with interpreter Jamie Nguyen.

Nguyen, 33, said she is considering filing a lawsuit against Emmons over the episode, which began when Emmons was escorting a prisoner through a private courthouse hallway used only by court personnel.

Nguyen said Emmons, 42, had come at her “like a mad dog” when she got in his way, twisting her arm behind her back and wrestling her to the ground.

Emmons said that she had defied his orders to move aside and that her conduct had endangered the security of the watch he was keeping on his prisoner.

Emmons has been told by superiors not to discuss the incident or the investigation. A marshal’s office spokesman said it is department policy not to release the results of internal investigations.

But sources familiar with the outcome confirmed that Emmons has been exonerated of wrongdoing.