4 Who Claim Police Beat Them Were Not Charged : Oxnard: The public defender’s office says it is very unusual for the district attorney’s office not to prosecute suspects accused of crimes by police.

Over the past two years, the Ventura County district attorney’s office in four separate incidents has declined to prosecute suspects who contended that they were victims of police brutality while being arrested for various offenses by Oxnard officers, records show.

In a fifth and more recent incident, the district attorney’s office declined to file a charge of assaulting an officer against an Oxnard man who says he and several other guests at a June 15 private party were beaten by Oxnard police. Instead, Anthony Flores, 22, was charged with five misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest.

The men involved in three of the five incidents have filed police brutality lawsuits against the city, the department or the police officers involved. The suits, which seek unspecified damages and medical and legal expenses, are pending.

Two of the incidents have led to an investigation by the Police Department’s internal affairs division.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Brodie, misdemeanor supervisor for the office, said the decisions not to prosecute the suspects do not necessarily mean that Oxnard police were not justified in making the arrests. In each of the four cases, Brodie said, his office did not prosecute because it found that police did not provide enough evidence to prove the charges “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

But Jean Farley, a supervisor for the Ventura County public defender’s office, said it is extremely rare for the district attorney’s office not to prosecute a suspect who is accused by police.

The district attorney’s office may have declined to prosecute the suspects because police brutality has been alleged, she said. Prosecution is usually turned down when the arresting officer is suspected of using excessive force, she said.

Assistant Police Chief William Kady declined to discuss the brutality allegations against the Oxnard officers because of pending litigation. He said, however, that the decisions by the district attorney’s office not to prosecute the suspects do not reflect poorly on the department.

“I don’t think our reputation is any worse than any other department’s,” he said. “There is always going to be a disagreement over how much force is used.”

The latest incident involving an accusation of police brutality stemmed from the June 15 clash between 18 officers and about 12 party guests at a house in the 1300 block of South E Street.

It began when four officers answered complaints about a loud party. A police report said Flores started the fight by shoving a policeman. Flores and his brothers, Alex, 19, and Luis Jr., 24--all of whom suffered gashes and scrapes on their heads and bodies--said the officers beat them without provocation.

Police had arrested Flores on suspicion of assaulting an officer and of resisting arrest but the district attorney’s office decided two weeks later to prosecute Flores on the five misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest.

“Based upon my review of all the reports, the charges were the most appropriate charges to file,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Gran, who declined to elaborate.

Police Chief Robert Owens has ordered an investigation into the incident.

In an incident April 7, Sergio E. Gonzalez, 19, accused Oxnard officers of ordering a police dog to attack him before he was arrested.

In a suit filed June 29, Gonzalez said he was standing on Sunkist Circle when the dog attacked him, biting him on the arm and left shoulder. Gonzalez was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where he underwent surgery and spent two weeks recovering from his injuries.

Edward M. Fox, an attorney representing Gonzalez, said his client, a gardener, might suffer some permanent injury to his right arm.

According to a police report filed by Officer Michael Cole, police were sent to a parking lot outside the Oxnard Moose Lodge to investigate a report of an altercation between several men after a wedding reception. Cole’s report said Gonzalez was found hiding in the parking lot and “was bit by a police service dog during the arrest.”

The report, however, does not say why the dog attacked Gonzalez or whether Gonzalez resisted arrest. Police arrested Gonzalez on suspicion of disturbing the peace, Brodie said. But the district attorney’s office declined to file any charges because the police report failed to show that Gonzalez was involved in the altercation, Brodie said.

Fox said Gonzalez did not attend the wedding but was visiting a friend nearby and went to the parking lot to find out what was causing the commotion.

In a third incident, Louis M. Cornett, a retired teacher and licensed gun dealer, said he was beaten on Oct. 20 while in custody at Oxnard police headquarters. Cornett said the altercation began as he was returning home after scouting out a site for quail hunting near Santa Maria.

Officer Robert Camarillo said in a police report that Cornett was arrested in the 3600 block of Taffrail Road on suspicion of brandishing a weapon, resisting arrest and possessing a loaded firearm.

Camarillo said in the report that he stopped Cornett while investigating a complaint of a man waving a gun from a car and threatening youngsters packed into another vehicle. Camarillo said Cornett fit the description of the man who allegedly brandished the weapon.

When he searched Cornett’s car, Camarillo said, he found a semiautomatic handgun, several rounds of ammunition and a 12-gauge shotgun.

Camarillo admitted that he later shoved Cornett against a wall at police headquarters because the suspect had struggled and had clenched his fists in a threatening manner.

But a lawsuit against Camarillo filed May 8, 1989, alleges that while in custody at the police station, Camarillo shoved and punched Cornett in the mouth. “He slammed me in the mouth once, twice and a third time,” Cornett said in an interview.

Cornett, maintaining that he never struggled with the officer, said he suffered a broken tooth and a cut lip during the beating.

The district attorney’s office declined to file charges against Cornett because, Brodie said, there was insufficient evidence to prove that Cornett brandished a gun.

In a fourth incident, Alejandro Guzman-Flores, 21, accused three Oxnard officers of beating him on his face, causing severe damage to his eyesight.

Guzman-Flores said he was working in a motorcycle repair shop on Jan. 27, 1989, when his boss asked him to investigate a noise in the alley behind the shop in the 1500 block of South Pine Street.

In a suit filed against the city Nov. 14, 1989, the Police Department and officers Jana Younger, Fred Sedillos and James Struck, Guzman-Flores contends that he was grabbed from behind by Younger while in the alley. The officer poked him with a baton and questioned him about a car parked nearby, Guzman-Flores said in the suit.

The Police Department declined to release Flores’ arrest report because, police officials said, it contains his criminal history. But Flores’ lawyer, Sherrie L. McCracken, said the report states that officers were at the shop responding to a complaint of a man with a gun.

McCracken said the officers continued to question Flores in English, but Flores--a recent immigrant from Mexico who speaks only Spanish--could not respond. Flores was handcuffed and shoved to the ground, causing Sedillos to trip and fall on him, according to the suit.

Sedillos got up and punched and kicked Flores several times while Younger held Flores in a “choke-hold,” the suit alleges.

Flores was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and obstructing an officer. The district attorney’s office decided to prosecute Flores but later dismissed all charges during Flores’ trial because police failed to turn over a recording of a dispatcher’s call requesting that officers investigate the incident at the motorcycle shop, McCracken said.

McCracken said Flores never struggled with the officers until after he was placed in the choke-hold. McCracken said Flores was beaten so severely that he suffered a detached retina and might lose partial sight in one eye.

“They essentially beat the hell out of him for nothing,” she said.

In another incident, Luis C. Luna, 50, alleges in a complaint filed with the city on June 27, 1989, that he was beaten by three officers near a restaurant in Port Hueneme.

Luna said in an interview that he, his wife and several friends were leaving the restaurant on July 16, 1988, when an Oxnard police car pulled up in front of the group. Luna, a public works inspector for the city of Port Hueneme, said he walked up to the police car and asked Officer Peter Ruggiero “in a kidding manner” what he was doing in Port Hueneme.

“The officer jumped out and started pushing me back against the pillar in front of the building, using his baton on my throat,” Luna said in the complaint.

When he asked the officer why he was being shoved, Ruggiero told him that he was under arrest, according to the complaint. Officers Steven Vendt and Humberto Jimenez were called to assist Ruggiero, the complaint said.

“They used forcible brutality by hitting me with the baton on my elbow, knees and back, forcing me to drop down on the sidewalk with my face slammed against the pavement,” Luna said in the complaint.

Luna was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct under the influence of drugs. The district attorney’s office decided to prosecute Luna, but in September, 1988--before his trial began--all charges against him were withdrawn for lack of evidence, Brodie said.

Owens ordered the department’s internal affairs division to investigate Luna’s complaint. But Luna said the Police Department later sent him a letter saying the investigation revealed no wrongdoing on the officers’ parts.

Luna had asked the city for $50,000 for medical expenses and to compensate for “humiliation suffered in public.” He failed, however, to submit the claim for damages during the statutory six-month period after the incident and was barred by law from filing a lawsuit.