Deputy in Beating Sues Sheriff’s Dept.

Sheriff’s Deputy Tracy Watson, one of two officers being investigated in the baton beating of two illegal immigrants April 1--is suing the department, charging that his superiors coerced him into writing a potentially self-incriminating report.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, asks for unspecified financial damages and demands that the report be kept out of the hands of investigators in Los Angeles who are considering criminal and civil charges against him.

The court document suggests that top sheriff’s brass began making plans to investigate the deputy for excessive use of force as soon as they viewed television broadcasts of the incident--and as Watson was still in the field.

According to the lawsuit, Watson’s first inkling that he might be in trouble occurred when he was leaving the scene and was ordered to immediately return to his station.

Watson, 29, was put into a private, isolated room to write his report, and was denied the opportunity to confer with officers of the deputy sheriff’s employee association and its attorney, the lawsuit stated.

The department’s actions, the lawsuit charges, violated state law and Watson’s constitutional rights of due process and legal representation and protection from unlawful detention and self-incrimination.

The demand on the five-year deputy to quickly write the report was “a subterfuge and pretext to obtain an incriminating statement . . . to be used for further interrogation, and for administrative and criminal prosecution,” according to the lawsuit.

Watson’s attorney, Michael Stone, said Thursday that Watson feels like he is “more of a suspect than the person he arrested.”

A Riverside County Sheriff’s Department spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The incident was sparked after U.S. Border Patrol agents asked the Sheriff’s Department to stop an erratically driven pickup filled with suspected illegal immigrants near Temecula.

Watson trailed Deputy Kurt Franklin in chasing the pickup on the Pomona Freeway into Los Angeles County--and he knew that television news helicopters were overhead, Stone said.

“While in the pursuit, he lit up a cigarette,” Stone said. “He looked up into the sky and knew there were news helicopters, and that it wouldn’t look very good, smoking a cigarette in a pursuit, so he put it out.”

The pickup stopped in South El Monte and most of its occupants ran away--and were later caught. The news footage showed Franklin and Watson using their batons to repeatedly strike an unarmed man and woman, the last two to get out of the vehicle.

The lawsuit says “an intermediate level of force was used to effect the arrests, overcome resistance and prevent escape consistent with state law.” The incident is being jointly investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, as well as by the Riverside Sheriff’s Department. Additionally, a claim has been filed against the county on behalf of two occupants of the pickup.

Peter Schey, the lawyer for Enrique Funes Flores, who was seen being struck on the videotape, ridiculed the lawsuit. “I doubt if anyone was holding a baton to his head when he filled out his report,” he said.

Franklin’s attorney, John D. Barnett, said he would not be filing a similar suit against the department. “The two deputies are in different positions and we won’t always employ the same legal strategy,” he said.

Watson spends most of his time now at home, Stone said. “He’s got a very supportive mother and fiancee, and a police chaplain is with him a lot and prays for him every day.”

Stone said his client feels he is the victim of “police brutality” because of the department’s handling of the incident.

Officers who are investigated by their own departments “feel very alone and very isolated and, in the case of Tracy Watson, abandoned, when they are subjected to this sort of mistreatment,” Stone said.

“He should have been permitted to speak to his mom, get himself cooled down, maybe talk to a chaplain or a police psychologist . . . and then [meet] with a lawyer or an [employees’] association representative, so he could get information about . . . what he could expect to occur, so he could respond to the inquiry without incriminating himself.”

Stone said it was unreasonable to expect Watson to write a clear and accurate account of what had happened because he still was experiencing an adrenaline rush.

“That isn’t to say,” Stone said, “ ‘Oh, the adrenaline rush is the reason he has license to get out of a car and pound the hell out of people with a metal pipe.’ Of course not. But what we’re talking about is the ability to recall the event in its proper and accurate way, because his perceptions are extremely important to the legality of what happened, as to whether the force was excessive.”

Stone said Watson’s report does not contain any false statements. But because Watson was not allowed to view the video to refresh his memory, “details and sequencing of events are lacking” in the report and it “obviously is going to be inconsistent” with the video.

The gravity of the incident struck Watson as soon as he arrived at his station, according to the lawsuit, when another deputy asked Watson if he wanted an attorney. Watson said yes.

Watson was directed to a private office, was told that his statement could result in discipline or arrest and that he “probably will” need an attorney, the lawsuit said.

But Watson was told he could not meet the attorney until after he wrote his report--and that if he refused to write it, he would face discipline or firing, according to the lawsuit.

When the attorney showed up, another deputy let her into the room with Watson--but she was swiftly ejected by a supervisor, according to the suit. After writing the report, Watson was relieved of his badge and suspended.

This is the first time Watson has had problems with his department, Stone said. “Tracy’s like a thousand kids who always wanted to be in law enforcement,” Stone said. Now, Watson feels “like he’s been left out in the cold.”

* WORK PERMITS GRANTED: Most of those who rode in truck receive work permits. B1