Teen’s Father Sparks Probe of Deputy : Law enforcement: Man says son, 14, was handcuffed and held nearly two hours in retaliation for fistfight with officer’s son. Sheriff’s officials confirm investigation.

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy is under investigation after the father of a 14-year-old boy complained that the off-duty officer handcuffed his son and threatened to take him to jail for beating the deputy’s son during a fistfight in their San Bernardino County neighborhood.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Wednesday that it is looking into charges that Deputy Frank Fernandez used excessive force and unlawfully arrested the Alta Loma teen-ager when he held him for nearly two hours while waiting for San Bernardino county deputies to arrive on the scene.

“He kidnaped him right off the street,” said Michel Karaiscos, who lodged the complaint on behalf of his son, Yulin.

“If I would have done that with anybody’s son, I would have been in jail,” Karaiscos added. “The parents would have had me arrested, and they would have been right. But here’s a man with a badge, so he felt he could do that.”

Fernandez could not be reached for comment.

According to Karaiscos, the trouble started after his son and Fernandez’s son traded punches Friday afternoon after an argument about playing football. The fight lasted less than two minutes, Karaiscos said, and the boys went their separate ways.

But a short time later, while Yulin, his younger brother and a friend walked home, Karaiscos said Deputy Fernandez and a neighbor drove up and grabbed the 14-year-old.

Adella Andrade, who said the confrontation took place in front of her house, said Fernandez was dressed in a T-shirt and pants and was wearing a gun belt.

“He just banged the boy against the car and started roughing him up,” she said. “Then he handcuffed him and threw him into the car. It looked horrible. I thought he was a kidnaper, and I was going to call the police.”

Andrade said she did not make the call after the boy’s brother told her who Fernandez was. Karaiscos said he learned that Fernandez took his son to the deputy’s home.

“Yulin was out on a block fence in this man’s front yard, handcuffed, with the neighbors gawking at him for almost two hours,” he said.

In issuing a formal statement on the incident, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Fernandez detained the youth while awaiting the arrival of San Bernardino County deputies. A battery report was filed against the teen-ager for injuring Fernandez’s 13-year-old son, said Deputy Mary Landreth.

“The deputy’s son sustained numerous lacerations to the inside of his lip and injuries to his teeth requiring medical attention,” she said.

Landreth added that Fernandez, a 17-year-veteran, is assigned to the department’s anti-drug program for elementary schools known as SANE or Substance Abuse Narcotics Education. He remains on duty while the investigation is under way, she said.

Karaiscos, meanwhile, said he plans to sue the deputy, the neighbor who assisted him and the county. “I think Fernandez went out on a hunt, got his prey and took his trophy home for everyone else to see,” he said.

Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this story.