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By PORAC | January 1, 2006 | Posted in PORAC LDF News

Ventura County Deputy Found Not To Have Committed Excessive Force

Posted by Ken Yuwiler

Deputy Pablo Lazaro is a sworn member of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department deployed at the Todd Road Jail. He received a 48-hour suspension as a result of separate interactions with two inmates. The department claimed that Lazaro used excessive force in those interactions. After a full hearing, the Ventura County Civil Service Commission found otherwise. Lazaro expressed his sincere thanks for having LDF coverage to allow him to appeal. Lazaro was represented throughout the hearing by this author, of Silver, Hadden & Silver.

The First Incident

The first incident involved a difficult inmate. Deputies were previously told to “use extreme caution when dealing with”, that inmate because he had an “extensive history of assaults on staff”. On January 25, 2004, the inmate was having another one of his bad days. He started out preventing the deputies from seeing into his cell by placing a piece of paper over the camera. After several requests to remove the paper, the inmate still refused to comply. As a result, he was sprayed with “Deep Freeze”, a chemical agent which includes pepper spray, and was extracted from his cell.

Hours later, Lazaro and another deputy were assigned to escort the inmate back to his assigned cell. Other deputies followed. Presumably because of the inmate’s prior behavior, before being moved, a senior deputy told both deputies that they should: “Walk him back. It’s already gone to the next level. You don’t ask him, you tell him. If he doesn’t comply or otherwise becomes resistant, you take him down with whatever’s necessary to control him”.

Unfortunately, on the way back to his assigned cell, the inmate was non-compliant and acted like he was about to head butt the other deputy. Therefore, Lazaro took him to the ground while trying to minimize the fall. The evidence showed that:

  • While the inmate was being escorted back to his cell, he was moving his head side to side. As a result, the other deputy gave the inmate an instruction to keep his head forward.
  • Lazaro heard the other deputy’s instruction so he turned to look at the inmate.
  • The inmate did not comply, instead shaking his head while make a hissing sound in disgust, and then turned his head and shoulders to advance towards the other deputy.
  • Lazaro was immediately concerned that the inmate was going to head butt the deputy, and in a split-second decision, Lazaro put the inmate on the ground to minimize his actions.
  • The inmate sustained a couple of minor cuts to his lip, was seen by a nurse and offered a bag of ice, which the inmate refused.

Nonetheless, the department claimed that none of the other deputies who were present believed they were in jeopardy and none said they would have taken the inmate to the ground. Therefore, the department concluded that Lazaro used excessive force. Unfortunately, the department failed to take into account that Lazaro was in the unique situation to observe the totality of the incident whereas the other deputies only saw a piece of what happened.

The Second Incident

The second incident occurred during an inmate’s clothing exchange. While a deputy was performing a clothing exchange for an inmate, Lazaro noticed that the inmate was seeking to exchange his shirt even though he had already had done so that day. Presumably the inmate wanted to get a larger shirt or had traded his previously exchanged shirt to another inmate. At the time, the inmate was being assisted by a deputy who was not aware of the inmate’s games. That deputy was in a room looking for a new shirt and could not see the inmate who was standing in the hallway outside the cell. Jail security requires that any inmate waiting for a clothing exchange shall stand facing the wall with his hands behind his back. Instead of following those rules, the inmate turned and was moseying closer to the room. Lazaro saw the inmate’s antics from a control booth.

As the inmate closed the distance from approximately 40 feet to about 20 feet from the other deputy’s position, Lazaro instructed the inmate to stop, face the wall and stop playing games. The inmate continued to violate jail policy by mouthing off to Lazaro in a public display of disrespect and then removing the shirt he was seeking to exchange. Although the inmate could have been written up for the violations, Lazaro merely asked the other deputy if another shirt was available for the inmate. Learning that there was not, the inmate was instructed to return to his cell.

Rather than go to his cell as instructed, the inmate continued his disrespectful attitude towards Lazaro by saying something to the effect of “I get more respect from the white guy [the other deputy] then I do from you and you’re a Mexican”. At that point, Lazaro felt it was necessary to address the inmate’s disrespect. Therefore, Lazaro and the other deputy directed the inmate to an interview room to be written up for disrespect.

While being escorted through the jail, inmates are required to grasp their hands behind their back. Yet, the inmate continued to fail to follow repeated directives to keep his hands behind his back. Instead, he constantly moved his hands around. Lazaro believed that the inmate, who is about 350 pounds, was acting in a threatening manner towards Lazaro. At one point the inmate dropped his hands and began to turn towards Lazaro, who was approximately two feet away and within striking distance. As a result, Lazaro sprayed the inmate with pepper spray rather than risk going hands on with the inmate.

The other deputy claimed that the inmate did not need to be pepper sprayed because the inmate was just pulling up his pants. The department then used that as its justification to impose discipline upon Lazaro claiming that Lazaro used excessive force. However, at the pre-disciplinary Skelly hearing, the department was told that the inmate admitted to a different deputy that the inmate was given instructions by Lazaro to put his hands behind his back, that the inmate was not trying to pull up his pants and was instead pretending to do so, and that the inmate was “messing with Lazaro” by intentionally moving his hands from his back. Nevertheless, the department still sustained a finding against Lazaro for excessive use of force.

The Commission’s Ruling

After a full hearing, the commission found that the department failed to meet its burden to show that Deputy Lazaro’s conduct was inappropriate to justify the 48-hour suspension. In fact, the commission found that in the first incident the “totality of the circumstances not only justified, but also required the degree of force employed” and that the “force used was neither excessive nor unreasonable”. In the second incident, the commission also found that at the time the force was used “it was necessary and justified”, and that “no disciplinary action can be justified on the basis of the deputy’s use of unreasonable or excessive force in this incident”. In short, Lazaro was vindicated by the Commission’s clear determination that the force used in each incident was necessary and justified.