Ex-Deputy Denies He Hit Man With Flashlight

Former Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Donald Rodarte, accused of contributing to the 1997 beating death of a 21-year-old college student, took the stand Wednesday to deny ever striking an already severely wounded Nicholas Dowey in the head with a flashlight during a raucous party.

Rodarte is one of several deputies being sued in Los Angeles federal court by the parents of Dowey, who succumbed to extensive head trauma hours after being beaten by several assailants at the party and having a scuffle with two sheriff’s deputies.

The Doweys claim deputies used excessive force and failed to get their son needed medical attention.

Eight deputies are named in the suit, but on Wednesday U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer granted a defense request to dismiss the case against three deputies--Ed Zaragosa, Landis Potter and Gil White.

Before the trial began, Pfaelzer agreed to drop four other deputies, Ventura County and the Sheriff’s Department as defendants in the civil case.

Aside from key defendants Rodarte and Deputy Darin Yanover, both of whom wrestled with Dowey that evening, three others remain in the suit--Sheriff’s Capt. James Barrett, who runs the Ojai station, and deputies Oscar Gongora and Pat Hardy.

Rodarte, who was the final witness called to the stand for the plaintiff’s case, testified about an hour regarding his encounter with an injured but highly combative Dowey on Sept. 12, 1997.

Rodarte said he could clearly see blood splattered across Dowey’s head, neck and shirt when he encountered the Ventura man outside a Meiners Oaks home where a loud party had been going on.

Witnesses have testified since Thursday that unknown individuals attacked Dowey outside the party, striking him in the head or shoulder area with a bat or a steering wheel locking device similar to one known as “The Club.”

Witnesses said a disoriented Dowey tried to run from Rodarte and Yanover, prompting a struggle between the authorities and the injured man.

At that time, Rodarte said it wasn’t clear whether Dowey, who attended the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge, was the victim of an attack.

“I didn’t know whether he was a victim or a suspect,” Rodarte said. “But being that close to him, I could see he was injured.”

Dowey, a former high school wrestler who weighed nearly 200 pounds, tossed violently back and forth, with the deputies struggling for control, Rodarte said. Rodarte testified he took out his pepper spray can, but in the tussle sprayed partner Yanover instead.

Testimony by witnesses has centered on a deputy who allegedly took out a flashlight or another long, black object and struck Dowey over the head one to three times.

Rodarte denies the accusation.

He was less confident, however, under questioning from the Doweys’ attorney, Richard Hamlish.

When asked if he may have struck Dowey in the head with his empty, palm-size pepper spray canister, Rodarte’s voice wavered as he answered: “No, not that I’m aware.”

“Could you have hit him with the canister and not have been aware of it?” Hamlish asked.

“I don’t know,” Rodarte said.

Hamlish questioned how Rodarte could be so certain he did not strike Dowey with a flashlight when he sounded unsure about hitting him with a pepper spray can.

“I think if I hit Mr. Dowey with a flashlight, I think it’s something that would be in my hand, something I’d be aware of,” Rodarte said.

After the scuffle, Rodarte said, he found his flashlight and a mini-tape recorder, with its batteries knocked out, scattered on the ground.

Contradicting earlier testimony of witnesses who said a deputy struck Dowey so hard with a flashlight that the batteries fell out, Rodarte said he found his flashlight intact.

Rodarte is expected to return to the stand as part of the defense case, which began late Wednesday afternoon.

Rodarte was terminated as a deputy in September for what sheriff’s officials said was lying about striking Dowey with the pepper spray can. Pfaelzer ruled before the trial that Rodarte’s dismissal could not be presented to the jury.

On his first day presenting evidence, defense attorney Alan Wisotsky played an audiotape of an interview with 19-year-old Tom Frank, an Ojai resident who attended the party and said he saw the attack on Dowey before authorities arrived.

Frank, whom attorneys have been unable to locate since his initial interview with Det. Raul Munoz in late September 1997, said he saw a group of seven men attack Dowey. At least one struck him over the head with a metal steering wheel lock, he said on the tape.

“He was fighting and he never even knew it was coming. . . . It floored him,” Frank said.

Frank also said he later saw deputies grab Dowey, put him in a headlock and punch him in the face.

Frank told Munoz that several gangs were rumored to be involved in the earlier attack on Dowey and that he was scared to talk about what he knew because of possible retaliation.

On the tape, Munoz asked Frank if he had heard that George Christie III, the son of the local Hells Angels leader George Christie, was involved in the attack. Frank said yes, he was aware of such rumors but added he didn’t want to give specific names.

“I don’t want to be a victim of gangs,” Frank said. “I’m getting scared.”