Newport Officers Cleared in Fracas on Lot at Big A : Law enforcement: Disturbance occurred during tailgate party after a Rams game.

A group of off-duty Newport Beach police officers involved in an altercation in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot last month have been cleared by the department of allegations of misconduct, according to an internal investigation released Wednesday.

The scuffle occurred Sept. 12 during a tailgate party two hours after a Rams football game when a friend of a civilian employee at the Newport Beach department insulted a man collecting aluminum cans in the parking lot. Before the affair ended, an off-duty police officer was hit by a car and another off-duty officer chased that car onto the Riverside Freeway where he stopped it by firing shots into a tire, according to the report and witnesses.

“The department finds no evidence to substantiate any misconduct on the part of a department employee,” said the internal investigation’s summary. The complete report was not released, police said, because Anaheim police and the Orange County district attorney are still investigating the incident.

Larry Ray Rodriguez, 25, of Carson has been arraigned on four felony charges, including drunk driving, assault with a deadly weapon and the hit-and-run of Newport Beach Officer Dale Johnson, said to Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew Anderson. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4 in Municipal Court in Fullerton.

Though some of those who tangled with the 10 officers, two civilian employees and three others agree with the summary’s scenario, in interviews Wednesday they faulted the off-duty officers for not stopping the altercation sooner.

“They should have identified themselves as police officers sooner. But all of a sudden they were pulling out guns and I didn’t know who the hell they were,” said Anthony Bachelier of La Habra, the son of the man collecting cans.

Newport Beach police acknowledge that some of their officers involved were drinking alcohol at the stadium, but the investigation found that no officers were drunk or adversely affected by alcohol, said Lt. Paul Henisey, who coordinated the investigation.

“I don’t think that alcohol was a significant factor,” Henisey said.

The investigation concluded that officers did not provoke the confrontation, and as peace officers are expected to intervene to prevent a crime. Moreover, the officer who fired on the car being driven by Rodriguez thought he was pursuing someone who may have killed an officer.

According to the investigation and interviews with witnesses, Ben Bachelier, 45, of Whittier was collecting aluminum cans in the parking lot when a friend of one of the civilian police employees taunted him by throwing an empty can and a nickel at his feet, while he goaded him over picking it up.

When Bachelier’s 25-year-old son, Anthony, and four of his friends came over, an argument ensued. Newport Officer Dave Byington went over to the Bacheliers’ group and apologized for the friend’s behavior.

Soon after, the investigation alleges, Marco Vasquez, a friend of Anthony Bachelier, threw a punch at the person who had initially thrown the can. Officer Byington intervened again, but was punched in the head at least twice as he tried to arrest Vasquez. Vasquez later was cited by Anaheim police officers for battery.

“There was a lot of confusion going on at this time,” said Sgt. Andy Gonis, Newport Beach police spokesman. “Everything was happening very rapidly.”

Then Rodriguez, who had joined Bacheliers’ group, maneuvered his small compact car around parking lot barricades and headed toward the area where the two sides were faced off. His car veered into Officer Johnson, who bounced off the hood, landing on the ground unconscious and bleeding from the head.

While one officer pursued Rodriguez, some of the other police pulled guns and identified themselves as they forced Bachelier and his friends to lie down on the cement.

Though the investigation maintains that officers used reasonable force, Anthony Bachelier said he has accumulated $1,600 in medical bills to treat a back sprain and head laceration caused by an officer who planted a knee in his back and pointed a gun at his head.

The freeway chase ended about five miles away on the westbound Riverside Freeway when the pursuing officer, whom Newport police declined to identify other than to say he has been on the force for 17 years, flattened a tire on Rodriguez’s car with four shots.

“Shots were calculated, they were not wild shots,” Gonis said. “He felt comfortable that he would not endanger the driver of the vehicle or others.”

The officer who fired the shots was put on paid administrative leave for three days, per department policy on officer-involved shootings. All the officers are on active duty, except Officer Johnson, who may need two years to recover from torn ligaments in his knee, Gonis said.

According to the investigation summary, “All NBPD personnel involved acted reasonably, with restraint, and within existing Department regulations under very trying circumstances.”