Deputies’ Clubbing of 2 Suspects Taped

In dramatic videotape aired repeatedly on local television, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies on Monday violently clubbed two suspected illegal immigrants in South El Monte after a high-speed, 80-mile chase of a battered pickup crammed with 21 people.

The videotape--filmed by a camera crew for KCAL Channel 9--shows a man and a woman being beaten as others flee from the pickup, which reportedly had evaded an Immigration and Naturalization Service checkpoint on Interstate 15 near Temecula.

“The officers just beat those people up--really hard blows,” Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Southern California affiliate, said after watching the tape on television. “It didn’t seem to be necessary. They didn’t appear to be resisting.

“It looks like Rodney King all over again,” Ripston added, referring to the 1991 videotaped beating of King by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase that ended in Lake View Terrace.

Sgt. Mark Lohman, a spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, said Monday night that the department is “very embarrassed” by the incident and is “seriously concerned about the actions of our officers.”

The two officers involved in the beatings have been placed on paid leave while the department conducts an internal investigation, Lohman said at a news conference. One officer has been with the department for 20 years and the other is a five-year veteran, Lohman said. Neither officer has been publicly identified.

Sheriff’s Department policy states that an officer shall use only force “that is reasonable and necessary” to subdue a suspect, Lohman said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, has begun a criminal investigation, Lohman said.

Ripston issued an immediate request that Justice Department guidelines be established to govern the conduct of police officers during and after high-speed chases. In addition, immigrant rights groups demanded an investigation of what happened.

Border Patrol officers said the chase began before noon after they saw the pickup use a side road to make a detour around the Temecula checkpoint.

Lohman said the Border Patrol officers twice tried to stop the truck but were unsuccessful. When the officers tried a third time, the occupants of the truck began tossing beer cans at them.

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The Border Patrol then called the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which dispatched patrol cars that began the pursuit. The Border Patrol backed away from such chases after their pursuit of a station wagon in 1992 ended with that vehicle colliding with a car, killing four high school students in the car.

Officials said Monday the deputies chased the pickup as it sped north on I-15 and then west on the Pomona Freeway at speeds of up to 100 mph. Twice during the chase, the pickup tried to ram other cars in an attempt to divert the attention of the pursuing deputies, Lohman said.

The pickup--which lost its camper top during the pursuit--finally pulled to the shoulder of the Pomona Freeway near the Peck Road offramp in South El Monte.

The videotape shows 18 of the passengers and the driver bolting from the truck and dashing for cover in a nearby nursery as the patrol cars roll up.

“About 10 of those guys came up from the river and ran, but they ran right into a fence,” said Enrique Gallo, 26, whose uncle owns the nursery. Halted by the fence, the fleeing men reversed course, right into the arms of pursuing officers “who were waiting for them with their guns,” Gallo said.

Two of the people in the truck had remained with the vehicle--a female passenger in the front seat who apparently was unable to open the door, and a man who clambered out of the back of the truck to help her get free.

It was then, the videotape shows, that the beatings began.

One deputy started clubbing the man about the back and shoulders with a baton. The beating continued as the man fell, face down, to the ground.

When the woman got out of the cab, the deputy hit her twice in the back with his baton and then pulled her to the ground by her hair. One other deputy struck her once with a baton.

Neither the woman nor the man appeared to offer resistance or make any attempt to get away.

The beatings lasted only a few seconds, after which the man and the woman were handcuffed.

All 21 of the suspected illegal immigrants were captured, Lohman said. Officials did not identify any of them.

Nineteen were taken into INS custody for processing in Los Angeles. Two others were booked at the Riverside County Jail on suspicion of evasion of arrest and assault with a vehicle. One of the two received medical treatment before being booked, Lohman said. He did not say who was treated, nor did he describe the treatment.

Interviewed Monday night, Gallo said he had talked with one of the suspects before they were taken away. He said the man told him he had spent three days in the hills near San Diego before heading north in the pickup.

“He said he didn’t have anything to eat for three days,” Gallo said.

After watching the videotape Monday afternoon, Ripston said the beatings of the two suspects seemed “excessive and unnecessary.”

“That’s what happens after a high-speed pursuit,” she said. “The officers are pumped up, they finally get their hands on somebody, and they use excessive force”

After the King beating, four officers involved were acquitted of most counts in a state court, triggering riots in Los Angeles that were the worst in modern American history. Two of the officers later served prison terms after they were found guilty in federal court of violating King’s civil rights.

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While there are some obvious similarities between Monday’s incident and the videotaped beating of King, there are some stark differences.

King was struck more than 50 times by LAPD Officers Laurence M. Powell and Timothy E. Wind. After Monday’s chase, the man was struck six times and the woman was struck twice by the same officer. She was then hit again by another officer.

The King beating lasted almost a minute and a half. Monday’s beating lasted about 15 seconds.

King was shot twice with a Taser electric stun gun, and the officers claimed he was resisting arrest when they struck him with their batons. The two suspected illegal immigrants seemed passive when they were struck by deputies.

The injuries King suffered included a fractured eye socket and cheekbone, a concussion, fractured bones at the base of his skull and a broken ankle. The two individuals beaten Monday did not appear to have suffered injuries as serious as King’s.

Ripston, who commented before making inquiries to authorities about the incident, said she was sending a letter to U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Deval Patrick, an official in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, requesting federal guidelines to prevent the use of such force.

Representatives of immigrant rights groups in Los Angeles were quick to condemn the incident, which they watched on Channel 9’s 3 p.m. broadcast.

“This is a disgrace,” said Roberto Lovato, executive director of the Central American Resource Center. “Not another dime [of public funds] should go to the INS until this type of case is resolved.”

Luke Williams, executive director of the Coalition for Human Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles, said he “cringed “ while watching the tape.

“The [immigrants] were not armed, they weren’t carrying guns, they hadn’t committed any bank robberies,” Williams said. “The officers weren’t in any imminent danger. It was just a breakdown of due process. [The officers’ behavior] was uncalled for.”

Williams called for an investigation of the incident by INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, the California Highway Patrol and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Times staff writers Miles Corwin, Abigail Goldman and George Ramos contributed to this story.