Sheriff’s Deputy Arrested in Fracas Outside Bar

An off-duty San Diego County sheriff’s deputy with a good record was arrested and jailed early Tuesday morning on charges of drunken driving and of threatening two fellow officers with a handgun, law enforcement officials said.

Deputy Jose Raimundo Huizar, 28, had been drinking at a small Lemon Grove nightclub, the Nite Life East, when two on-duty deputies made a routine check of the club at about 1:30 a.m., Sgt. Glenn Revell said. When club employees told them Huizar was being disruptive, the deputies spoke with him briefly, then left the club, Revell said.

Huizar was “obviously intoxicated,” said the club’s general manager, Jeffrey Houston, but did not argue when the club’s employees asked him to leave.

Revell said Huizar and an unidentified friend were just leaving the club in a vehicle when the on-duty deputies returned. They followed Huizar and pulled him over in Spring Valley, Revell said, sparking a “confrontation” during which Huizar brandished a handgun.

Huizar, a six-year department veteran, was booked on charges of threatening an officer with a weapon, battery on an officer and driving under the influence of alcohol. He was released on his own recognizance Tuesday and placed on administrative leave from the Lemon Grove substation pending the outcome of a criminal investigation.

Sheriff’s Captain Jim Roache, who is on leave from the Lemon Grove substation during his campaign for sheriff, said his staff had informed him of the incident early Tuesday.

“It’s one of those dumb things--not thinking, consuming alcohol in an establishment that I would prefer not to have my personnel frequent,” Roache said. “He apparently didn’t use sound judgment. We expect our officers to handle themselves in public as law-abiding, respectable citizens with the utmost dignity. It appears this didn’t happen in this case.”

Roache added: “It’s too bad, because the kid has a good record as a patrol officer in Lemon Grove.”

Huizar could not be reached Tuesday.

Revell said he could not divulge details of Huizar’s personnel record, but said he knew of no similar incidents involving him. He said that the Sheriff’s Department will conduct an internal investigation, but that the criminal case will be handled by the district attorney’s office. If charges are pressed, and Huizar is found guilty, he said, it is unclear what disciplinary measures will be imposed.

“That’s up to administrative discipline channels,” he said. “There is no set discipline for each of those offenses.”

Huizar is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 20 in El Cajon Municipal Court, a jail spokeswoman said.

Houston, the club’s general manager, said his staff was unaware that Huizar was a deputy.

“Both my security people and my manager did not know if he was a sheriff. He could have been anybody. He could have been a construction worker,” Houston said.