Ray, letter, 1991-05-31, to Jamba; False arrest and police brutality, [1991?] |
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Warren Christopher CHAIR John A. Arguelles VICECl!AIR MEMBERS Roy A. Anderson Willie R. Barnes Prof. Leo F. Estrada Mickey Kantor Richard M. Mosk INDEPENDENT COMMISSION ON THE Los ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT May 31st 1 9 9 1 John W. Spiegel GENERAL COUNSEL DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL Percy Anderson Richard E. Drooyan Gary A. Feess Raymond C. Fisher Ernest J. Getto Lawrence B. Gotlieb Thomas E. Holliday Andrea Sheridan Ordin John Brooks Slaughter Robert E. Tranquada, M.D. Barbara J. Kelley Louise A. LaMothe Yolanda Orozco Dennis M. Perluss Gilbert T. Ray EX£CU11VE DIRECTOR Prof. Bryce Nelson DIRECT'OR F'OR PRESS INFO.RMATION Ms. Geri L. J am.ba 7143 Gateshead Way West Hills, CA 91307 Dear Ms . J am.ba : John B. Sherrell Brian A. Sun On behalf of Warren Christopher and the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, I want to thank you for your memorandum. Although we are not vested with powers to consider individual cases, we found the information set forth in your memorandum to be very helpful. We will c e rtainly take t he information into consideration in reaching our conclusions. We will also keep your materials in our library for further review by our staff and the Commissioners . Very truly yours, Gi~7:?" Executive Director GTR Suite 1910 400 South Hope Street Los Angeles, California 90071-2899 Telephone (213) 622-5205 Facsimile (213) 622-7318 . ,., - -_,, ..... FALSE ARREST AND POLICE BRUTALITY Geri L. Jamba 7143 Gateshead Way West Hills, CA 91307 (g1p J 5 r; o-ff rt7 To Whom It May Concern : This is my story of False Arrest and Police ~rutality. I am 58 years old, a wife, a mother of 4 grown children and a grandmother of seven. I am a good, caring person who has never had any previous trouble with the police. I am a taxpayer and as such I have expected the police to protect me from criminals, not treat me like one. On the morning of December 12, 1989 my life was changed totally by the brutal actions of Officer J. W. Hosford (15198) and his associates. I was humiliated and degraded by what these policeman did. I d i d not deserve being treated like a criminal when I did nothing wrong. The following tells what happened on that day. I was expecting my daughter Vikki to come over to my house after taking her children to school. The night before was a real nightmare. Vikki was in the middle of a divorce, had problems with her job and financial affairs as well as caring for her two children. She was under the care of Dr. Cole who had been gi0ing her pills to control anxiety attacks . On the night of December 11, 1989 Vikki was suffering from a very bad anxiety attack brought upon because she had run out of the medication. She was so upset that my hu sband and I went over to her house to help. I called Dr . Cole to see if he could call in a prescription for some more pills. Dr . Cole refused and said she was no longer his patient because he found out tha~ her insurance plan did not cover his services. I told him I would hold him personally responsible for her wellfare unless he helped her at this time. He finally agreed to prescribe 10 pills. Since it was now in the middle of the night my husband had to drive to Van Nuys and pick up the prescription at an open all night Pharmacy. It was after 3:00 AM before Vikki was able to take the medication and get to bed. We found out later that the prescribed pills were only half the strength of the pills she had previously been taking. So on the morning of December 12 Vikki was coming over to my house to get some rest and try to see another Doctor. The following paragraph describes what happened on the way over to my house in Vikki~s own words : "At approximately 9 : 00AM I made a right turn in front of a parked police car at the corner of Woodlake and Sherman Way . After completing the turn I noticed the police car pull away from the curb and follow me up Sherman Way. After a few moments I noticed the police car had it ~ s lights on signaling me to pull over. At the first available opportunity I did indeed pull over and wait for the officer to approach me. The officer came to the car and stated that the registration on it was way overdue . His manner upset me because for some reason he appeared to be angry with me . Because of his abrupt hard core manner I found myself becoming nervous and questioning of his unnecessary abusiveness. I felt threatened by him and asked if he could follow me up the hill to my moms just minutes , from where we were. He refused. I told him that I was on medication and was going up to my moms house which was right up the street to rest . He verbally attacked me by stat ing that I had no business driving when taking medication. When I tried to explain that the medication didn/t affect my driving ability and I was just going to rest at my moms because l/d been under a l ot of strain recentl y, he said he didn't care what my problems were it was none of his concern and asked for my license. I promptly gave him my license and in addition, even though he hadn / t requested it gave him proof of insurance . He took the items back to hi s car which was parked immediately behind mine. The officer was writing on something I presumed a ticket, finished writing, and was just ~tan ding outside the police car taking turns glancing at me and the traffic as it passed by. After some time I leaned my head out the car window and asked the officer what was taking so long- he heard me, looked at me, but didn't answer. Approximately five minutes after I first tried to get a response from him I tried again. He did the same thing - now I was getting more nervous in fact I was becoming scared of him due to his behavior . He continued to take turns watching me and the traffic without responding to my questioning . I was so unsure of him that I had locked the car door and each time I spoke to him I rolled the window down and then up again. After approximately 20 minutes delay a tow truck arrived and started backing up into my car bo xing me between the police car and the tow truck . I again rolled down my car window and asked the officer what was going on and he told me to shut up! I felt panicked and sure that this man was not what he was presenting himself as . In a reflex like action I started the car and drove up the hill to my mothers. All the time I was driving I honked my horn hoping that someone would notice and be there so I wouldn't have to be alone with this man . I drove in my moms driveway door open, a nd rushed into her house. policeman chasing me but he was acting he was really an officer." left my engine running,car I told my mom there was a crazy and I didn't know if My daughter looked as white as a ghost. She locked the front door and told me to call 911 or call the police and get some help . I said if there was. a policeman out there I had to go out and talk to whoever it was and tr y to find out what was going on. I opened the door and went outside. Vikki was so upset and scared that she locked the door behind me . A police car w as pulled up to our driveway and Officer Hosford was running up the driveway toward the front door . He yelled "Get out of the way, I'm going to arrest her . " He l ooked like a wild man. The veins in his neck stuck out and his hair was hanging down over hi s face. I tried to explain that Vikki was not trying to get away; that she was having stress problems and was under the care of a Doct or and was taking medication . He said "Shut up" and was not interested in anything I had to say and didn't care what her problems were . I asked him if he could call Dr. Co le to verify her condition, but he repeatedly used foul language and said he didn ' t have to listen to anything we had to say . Hearing how I was being verbally abused and treated, Vikki opened the door and came out of the house and onto the porch to protect me from this man. She said "Mom, don't get yourself upset, he won't listen to either of us so we might as well let him do what he has to do". Officer Hosford pushed me aside and grabbed Vikki and yanked her off the porch. He told her to put her arms behind her back. Vikki did exactly what he told her to do. Instead of just handcuffing her hands, he grabbed her arms and crossed them backwards high up on her back, then put on the handcuffs and threw her face down on the hood of her car. I said "You don't have to treat her like that, she isn't doing anything wrong". He again slammed her into the hood of her car pulling her arms up while they were handcuffed behind her back. Everytime I tried to reason with him , he would pound Vikki some more. It was like he was deliberately hurting Vikki, trying to get me to do something to interfere with his actions. It was hard staying calm but I knew I had to or else this man would get more violent. Vikki began to yell "call 911, call the police, call a neighbor". I started to go toward them pleading for him not to hurt her and Officer Hosford yelled "Get back or I'll arrest you too". I stopped and at no time was I nearer than 7 or 8 feet from them. Officer Hosford started to push Vikki over to his police car. I asked him where he was going to take her and again he told me to shut up and said he wasn't going to tell me where he was taking her. I pleaded and begged him to tell me where he was taking my daughter and he repeatedly used foul language and said he didn ' t have to tell me anything. Vikki asked me to get a witness and Officer Hosford slammed her against the hood of his car and told me not to move. About this time we heard police sirens and Vikki asked if she could wait for another policeman to come. Officer Hosford again slammed her into the hood of his police car. Vikki was so afraid of Officer Hosford that she said "I want to wait for another policeman, I don ' t want to go in the car with you alone". Officer Hosford again slammed Vikki into the hood of his police car. My neighbor Steven Duval saw the extremely rough and brutal action that was going on and came over to see if he could help. He told Officer Hosford there was no need to use such force when Vikki wasn ' t doing anything. Officer Hosford told Mr Duval to shut up and get back. After a short while, more policemen started arriving. There were numerous police cars, a motorcycle officer and a helicopter converging on my house. Two of the policeman approached Officer Hosford and asked "What have we here" in a joking manner. Officer · Hosford had Vikki handcuffed near his police car and I was. standing in the driveway still talking to my neighbor Steve Duval. The two officers came up behind me and put handcuff~ on me without any warning. Officer Hosford had told the other two officers "Cuff her too" pointing at me. I was shocked by this action since I had done absolutely nothing except try to find out where he was taking my daughter and being concerned about how he was treating her. The two officers put me in their police car and Vikki was placed in their car shortly after. They would not allow me to get my purse or even lock my house. As they drove away one of them radiod that they were bringing in a "mental case". My daughter and ..... I were dumbfounded by this when we realized that they were talking about Vikki. What gives any policeman the right to make such a statement or judgement? My daughter and I were totally shocked at Officer Hosford's brutality, bad language and non caring attitude I was equally shocked finding the same non caring attitude of the other two officers. Both Vikki a n d I tried to talk to these officers. We told them about Officer Hosford's brutality, use of foul language, telling us to shut up and saying he did not have to tell us anything or listen to anything we had to say . The response from the officers was that Officer Hosford was right, that he did not do anything wrong, that he did not have to listen to us or tell us what was going on. They said it was normal policy not to li sten to people because it just causes more probl ems. They also said policeman have to be rougher with females because they are far more dangerous than men. One of the officers said he thought the use of shut up was a li ttle st r ong. As a r esul t of this brutal attack, Vikki was covered with black and blue bruises. She had complete arm lock bruises, bruises on both hips where she had been slammed against the cars, bruises on both legs and also bruises on her back from Officer Hosford's elbow where he held her down while handc uffed. She also had pulled muscles. The Doctor who e xamined Vikki said that her physical ailments proved that she had received nothing less than abusive treatment . Officer Hosford's report states "I leaned suspect #1 on the hood of the parked vehecle, used leverage to cuff her." What Officer Hosford actually did was slam my daughter against both her car and his car many times with brutal force as verified by witnesses . It is inconceivable that such a large officer was so out of control that he had to use brute force on a girl that only weighed 105 pounds, was doing everything she was told to do and offered no resistance . Instead of handling the situation in a professional manner he was out of control and created undeserved consequences for my daughter and myself. After me telling him that we had been up most of the night before, that Vikki had a medical problem and trying to explain her situation, it is unbelievable that a police officer could act in such a manner. Officer Ho s ford 's description of the events was not true. His written statement indicated that I tried to take Vikki away from him. He also told my husband and four other witnesses that I tried to take his gun away from him and was i nterfering with the arrest . Statemen t s like that were obviously made up to cover up his own brutal actions . I want to emphasize that statements in his report were false . It should not be necessary for a policeman who is supposed to be upholding our laws , to lie and make up stories . We were taken to the West Valley Police Station where we were handcuffed to a bench f acin9 a wall for over 2 hours before we were booked. On the wall of the station there were two large computer printed banners wh i ch read "Will Rogers never met a Hype". Why would any Police Station allow such si9ns to be displayed? Requests to loosen my handcuffs were ignored . I had indentations in my l eft wrist for several days after the arrest and my hand and wrist were numb for over a month . Followin9 these events a growth ~ ... . . ~ - ' .... developed on my hand that required surgery. As a result of this event, Vikkis car was impounded. Officer Hosford told Vikki's boyfriend that he had turned her drivers license into the DMV and that there would be more surprises for her. She was forced to go to the DMV Court to prove that she was capable of driving. This required a Doctors visit and examination to obtain a statement to satify the DMV. This cost $1500 in addition to the impound fees. As a result of the arrest, we had to appear in court on January 3rd, January 17th, February 15th and February 28th. At the February 28th appearance, our laywer J. Patrick Francis met with the District Attorney's laywer and they agreed that Vikki would be put on probation instead of going to jail and my charges could be reduced to an infraction if we would plead no contest. My laywer pointed out that testimony regarding actions of a mother def ending her daughter would not be taken as truthful and the word of the policeman would be given preference over mine. My lawyer not only advised me to agree to the reduced charge, he told me that persuing the case in a jury trial with expected subsequent actions to clear the charges would probably cost between $45,000 to $60,000. He said that we could also end up in jail and this scared us. Vikki had her stress problems and I had high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol(585), trigliceride(2500) and was told by my Doctor that I was a strong candidate for a stroke or heart ~ttack. Throughout this ordeal I was under unbearable stress. The worry of my daughter's welfare and my own health was at times more than I thought I could bear . I was worried about paying for the le~al help. The suffering, pain and anguish that we endured because of this officer has caused ongoing problems for our whole family. My cholesteral and trigliceride levels escalated to 1000 and 4000 respectively. My high blood pressure condition worsened and I am still under a Doctor's care. Our legal fees resulting from this terrible experience have amounted to almost $11,000. We have had to use our retirement savings, which cannot be replaced since my husband is almost 64 and will be retiring soon. I feel that we should be able to recover the money that this false arrest has cost us . I thought that with all the evidence we had, and the witnesses that had seen the situation, that the judge would see that I was innocent and there would be no need to have a trial. Our lawyer did not tell us that the judge never heard our side of the story and convinced us that if we agreed to the reduced charge it would be no more serious than a traffic ticket. However, I feel we were the victims of bad advice and feel very bad that we were not given a chance to say a word in our defense. All of these problems came about because Officer Hosford falsely arrested me and unjustly precipitated the arrest of my daughter. If this man had been a decent policeman carrying out his duties to protect and serve, none of this would have happened. I want my record cleared of this rediculous charge and my daughter should not have a record for the rest of her life brought about by the provoking, brutal actions of Officer Hosford. Knowing ",. ... - . r.._ .. .. . ' ...,, ' full well how this policeman falsified his report on my daughter and myself leads me to wonder how many other people have been unjustly treated by such officers . I would like the record of Officer Hosford (Badge # 1 5 1 98) to be e x amined a s I know others hav e suffered from h is u nprofessional action s . Geri L. Jamba
Object Description
Description
Title | Ray, letter, 1991-05-31, to Jamba; False arrest and police brutality, [1991?] |
Description | Gilbert T. Ray (Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department), 400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, California, letter, 1991 May 31, to Geri L. Jamba, 7143 Gateshead Way, West Hills, California. Geri L. Jamba "False arrest and police brutality", [1991?]. |
Geographic subject (roadway) | 400 South Hope Street; 7143 Gateshead Way |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Los Angeles; West Hills |
Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
Geographic subject (state) | California |
Geographic subject (country) | USA |
Geographic coordinates | 34.051552,-118.255687; 34.199791,-118.6426347 |
Coverage date | 1989-12-11; 1989-12-12; 1990-01-03; 1991-01-17; 1991-02-15; 1991-02-28 |
Creator |
Ray, Gilbert T. Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department Jamba, Geri L. |
Contributor | Jamba, Geri L., recipient |
Date created | [1991?]; 1991-05-31 |
Type | texts |
Format | 8 p. |
Format (aat) |
correspondence declarations |
Format (imt) | application/pdf |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Series | Independent Commission File List |
File | Complaints, suggestions, and support |
Box and folder | box 23, folder 10, item 15 |
Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
Full text | Warren Christopher CHAIR John A. Arguelles VICECl!AIR MEMBERS Roy A. Anderson Willie R. Barnes Prof. Leo F. Estrada Mickey Kantor Richard M. Mosk INDEPENDENT COMMISSION ON THE Los ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT May 31st 1 9 9 1 John W. Spiegel GENERAL COUNSEL DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL Percy Anderson Richard E. Drooyan Gary A. Feess Raymond C. Fisher Ernest J. Getto Lawrence B. Gotlieb Thomas E. Holliday Andrea Sheridan Ordin John Brooks Slaughter Robert E. Tranquada, M.D. Barbara J. Kelley Louise A. LaMothe Yolanda Orozco Dennis M. Perluss Gilbert T. Ray EX£CU11VE DIRECTOR Prof. Bryce Nelson DIRECT'OR F'OR PRESS INFO.RMATION Ms. Geri L. J am.ba 7143 Gateshead Way West Hills, CA 91307 Dear Ms . J am.ba : John B. Sherrell Brian A. Sun On behalf of Warren Christopher and the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, I want to thank you for your memorandum. Although we are not vested with powers to consider individual cases, we found the information set forth in your memorandum to be very helpful. We will c e rtainly take t he information into consideration in reaching our conclusions. We will also keep your materials in our library for further review by our staff and the Commissioners . Very truly yours, Gi~7:?" Executive Director GTR Suite 1910 400 South Hope Street Los Angeles, California 90071-2899 Telephone (213) 622-5205 Facsimile (213) 622-7318 . ,., - -_,, ..... FALSE ARREST AND POLICE BRUTALITY Geri L. Jamba 7143 Gateshead Way West Hills, CA 91307 (g1p J 5 r; o-ff rt7 To Whom It May Concern : This is my story of False Arrest and Police ~rutality. I am 58 years old, a wife, a mother of 4 grown children and a grandmother of seven. I am a good, caring person who has never had any previous trouble with the police. I am a taxpayer and as such I have expected the police to protect me from criminals, not treat me like one. On the morning of December 12, 1989 my life was changed totally by the brutal actions of Officer J. W. Hosford (15198) and his associates. I was humiliated and degraded by what these policeman did. I d i d not deserve being treated like a criminal when I did nothing wrong. The following tells what happened on that day. I was expecting my daughter Vikki to come over to my house after taking her children to school. The night before was a real nightmare. Vikki was in the middle of a divorce, had problems with her job and financial affairs as well as caring for her two children. She was under the care of Dr. Cole who had been gi0ing her pills to control anxiety attacks . On the night of December 11, 1989 Vikki was suffering from a very bad anxiety attack brought upon because she had run out of the medication. She was so upset that my hu sband and I went over to her house to help. I called Dr . Cole to see if he could call in a prescription for some more pills. Dr . Cole refused and said she was no longer his patient because he found out tha~ her insurance plan did not cover his services. I told him I would hold him personally responsible for her wellfare unless he helped her at this time. He finally agreed to prescribe 10 pills. Since it was now in the middle of the night my husband had to drive to Van Nuys and pick up the prescription at an open all night Pharmacy. It was after 3:00 AM before Vikki was able to take the medication and get to bed. We found out later that the prescribed pills were only half the strength of the pills she had previously been taking. So on the morning of December 12 Vikki was coming over to my house to get some rest and try to see another Doctor. The following paragraph describes what happened on the way over to my house in Vikki~s own words : "At approximately 9 : 00AM I made a right turn in front of a parked police car at the corner of Woodlake and Sherman Way . After completing the turn I noticed the police car pull away from the curb and follow me up Sherman Way. After a few moments I noticed the police car had it ~ s lights on signaling me to pull over. At the first available opportunity I did indeed pull over and wait for the officer to approach me. The officer came to the car and stated that the registration on it was way overdue . His manner upset me because for some reason he appeared to be angry with me . Because of his abrupt hard core manner I found myself becoming nervous and questioning of his unnecessary abusiveness. I felt threatened by him and asked if he could follow me up the hill to my moms just minutes , from where we were. He refused. I told him that I was on medication and was going up to my moms house which was right up the street to rest . He verbally attacked me by stat ing that I had no business driving when taking medication. When I tried to explain that the medication didn/t affect my driving ability and I was just going to rest at my moms because l/d been under a l ot of strain recentl y, he said he didn't care what my problems were it was none of his concern and asked for my license. I promptly gave him my license and in addition, even though he hadn / t requested it gave him proof of insurance . He took the items back to hi s car which was parked immediately behind mine. The officer was writing on something I presumed a ticket, finished writing, and was just ~tan ding outside the police car taking turns glancing at me and the traffic as it passed by. After some time I leaned my head out the car window and asked the officer what was taking so long- he heard me, looked at me, but didn't answer. Approximately five minutes after I first tried to get a response from him I tried again. He did the same thing - now I was getting more nervous in fact I was becoming scared of him due to his behavior . He continued to take turns watching me and the traffic without responding to my questioning . I was so unsure of him that I had locked the car door and each time I spoke to him I rolled the window down and then up again. After approximately 20 minutes delay a tow truck arrived and started backing up into my car bo xing me between the police car and the tow truck . I again rolled down my car window and asked the officer what was going on and he told me to shut up! I felt panicked and sure that this man was not what he was presenting himself as . In a reflex like action I started the car and drove up the hill to my mothers. All the time I was driving I honked my horn hoping that someone would notice and be there so I wouldn't have to be alone with this man . I drove in my moms driveway door open, a nd rushed into her house. policeman chasing me but he was acting he was really an officer." left my engine running,car I told my mom there was a crazy and I didn't know if My daughter looked as white as a ghost. She locked the front door and told me to call 911 or call the police and get some help . I said if there was. a policeman out there I had to go out and talk to whoever it was and tr y to find out what was going on. I opened the door and went outside. Vikki was so upset and scared that she locked the door behind me . A police car w as pulled up to our driveway and Officer Hosford was running up the driveway toward the front door . He yelled "Get out of the way, I'm going to arrest her . " He l ooked like a wild man. The veins in his neck stuck out and his hair was hanging down over hi s face. I tried to explain that Vikki was not trying to get away; that she was having stress problems and was under the care of a Doct or and was taking medication . He said "Shut up" and was not interested in anything I had to say and didn't care what her problems were . I asked him if he could call Dr. Co le to verify her condition, but he repeatedly used foul language and said he didn ' t have to listen to anything we had to say . Hearing how I was being verbally abused and treated, Vikki opened the door and came out of the house and onto the porch to protect me from this man. She said "Mom, don't get yourself upset, he won't listen to either of us so we might as well let him do what he has to do". Officer Hosford pushed me aside and grabbed Vikki and yanked her off the porch. He told her to put her arms behind her back. Vikki did exactly what he told her to do. Instead of just handcuffing her hands, he grabbed her arms and crossed them backwards high up on her back, then put on the handcuffs and threw her face down on the hood of her car. I said "You don't have to treat her like that, she isn't doing anything wrong". He again slammed her into the hood of her car pulling her arms up while they were handcuffed behind her back. Everytime I tried to reason with him , he would pound Vikki some more. It was like he was deliberately hurting Vikki, trying to get me to do something to interfere with his actions. It was hard staying calm but I knew I had to or else this man would get more violent. Vikki began to yell "call 911, call the police, call a neighbor". I started to go toward them pleading for him not to hurt her and Officer Hosford yelled "Get back or I'll arrest you too". I stopped and at no time was I nearer than 7 or 8 feet from them. Officer Hosford started to push Vikki over to his police car. I asked him where he was going to take her and again he told me to shut up and said he wasn't going to tell me where he was taking her. I pleaded and begged him to tell me where he was taking my daughter and he repeatedly used foul language and said he didn ' t have to tell me anything. Vikki asked me to get a witness and Officer Hosford slammed her against the hood of his car and told me not to move. About this time we heard police sirens and Vikki asked if she could wait for another policeman to come. Officer Hosford again slammed her into the hood of his police car. Vikki was so afraid of Officer Hosford that she said "I want to wait for another policeman, I don ' t want to go in the car with you alone". Officer Hosford again slammed Vikki into the hood of his police car. My neighbor Steven Duval saw the extremely rough and brutal action that was going on and came over to see if he could help. He told Officer Hosford there was no need to use such force when Vikki wasn ' t doing anything. Officer Hosford told Mr Duval to shut up and get back. After a short while, more policemen started arriving. There were numerous police cars, a motorcycle officer and a helicopter converging on my house. Two of the policeman approached Officer Hosford and asked "What have we here" in a joking manner. Officer · Hosford had Vikki handcuffed near his police car and I was. standing in the driveway still talking to my neighbor Steve Duval. The two officers came up behind me and put handcuff~ on me without any warning. Officer Hosford had told the other two officers "Cuff her too" pointing at me. I was shocked by this action since I had done absolutely nothing except try to find out where he was taking my daughter and being concerned about how he was treating her. The two officers put me in their police car and Vikki was placed in their car shortly after. They would not allow me to get my purse or even lock my house. As they drove away one of them radiod that they were bringing in a "mental case". My daughter and ..... I were dumbfounded by this when we realized that they were talking about Vikki. What gives any policeman the right to make such a statement or judgement? My daughter and I were totally shocked at Officer Hosford's brutality, bad language and non caring attitude I was equally shocked finding the same non caring attitude of the other two officers. Both Vikki a n d I tried to talk to these officers. We told them about Officer Hosford's brutality, use of foul language, telling us to shut up and saying he did not have to tell us anything or listen to anything we had to say . The response from the officers was that Officer Hosford was right, that he did not do anything wrong, that he did not have to listen to us or tell us what was going on. They said it was normal policy not to li sten to people because it just causes more probl ems. They also said policeman have to be rougher with females because they are far more dangerous than men. One of the officers said he thought the use of shut up was a li ttle st r ong. As a r esul t of this brutal attack, Vikki was covered with black and blue bruises. She had complete arm lock bruises, bruises on both hips where she had been slammed against the cars, bruises on both legs and also bruises on her back from Officer Hosford's elbow where he held her down while handc uffed. She also had pulled muscles. The Doctor who e xamined Vikki said that her physical ailments proved that she had received nothing less than abusive treatment . Officer Hosford's report states "I leaned suspect #1 on the hood of the parked vehecle, used leverage to cuff her." What Officer Hosford actually did was slam my daughter against both her car and his car many times with brutal force as verified by witnesses . It is inconceivable that such a large officer was so out of control that he had to use brute force on a girl that only weighed 105 pounds, was doing everything she was told to do and offered no resistance . Instead of handling the situation in a professional manner he was out of control and created undeserved consequences for my daughter and myself. After me telling him that we had been up most of the night before, that Vikki had a medical problem and trying to explain her situation, it is unbelievable that a police officer could act in such a manner. Officer Ho s ford 's description of the events was not true. His written statement indicated that I tried to take Vikki away from him. He also told my husband and four other witnesses that I tried to take his gun away from him and was i nterfering with the arrest . Statemen t s like that were obviously made up to cover up his own brutal actions . I want to emphasize that statements in his report were false . It should not be necessary for a policeman who is supposed to be upholding our laws , to lie and make up stories . We were taken to the West Valley Police Station where we were handcuffed to a bench f acin9 a wall for over 2 hours before we were booked. On the wall of the station there were two large computer printed banners wh i ch read "Will Rogers never met a Hype". Why would any Police Station allow such si9ns to be displayed? Requests to loosen my handcuffs were ignored . I had indentations in my l eft wrist for several days after the arrest and my hand and wrist were numb for over a month . Followin9 these events a growth ~ ... . . ~ - ' .... developed on my hand that required surgery. As a result of this event, Vikkis car was impounded. Officer Hosford told Vikki's boyfriend that he had turned her drivers license into the DMV and that there would be more surprises for her. She was forced to go to the DMV Court to prove that she was capable of driving. This required a Doctors visit and examination to obtain a statement to satify the DMV. This cost $1500 in addition to the impound fees. As a result of the arrest, we had to appear in court on January 3rd, January 17th, February 15th and February 28th. At the February 28th appearance, our laywer J. Patrick Francis met with the District Attorney's laywer and they agreed that Vikki would be put on probation instead of going to jail and my charges could be reduced to an infraction if we would plead no contest. My laywer pointed out that testimony regarding actions of a mother def ending her daughter would not be taken as truthful and the word of the policeman would be given preference over mine. My lawyer not only advised me to agree to the reduced charge, he told me that persuing the case in a jury trial with expected subsequent actions to clear the charges would probably cost between $45,000 to $60,000. He said that we could also end up in jail and this scared us. Vikki had her stress problems and I had high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol(585), trigliceride(2500) and was told by my Doctor that I was a strong candidate for a stroke or heart ~ttack. Throughout this ordeal I was under unbearable stress. The worry of my daughter's welfare and my own health was at times more than I thought I could bear . I was worried about paying for the le~al help. The suffering, pain and anguish that we endured because of this officer has caused ongoing problems for our whole family. My cholesteral and trigliceride levels escalated to 1000 and 4000 respectively. My high blood pressure condition worsened and I am still under a Doctor's care. Our legal fees resulting from this terrible experience have amounted to almost $11,000. We have had to use our retirement savings, which cannot be replaced since my husband is almost 64 and will be retiring soon. I feel that we should be able to recover the money that this false arrest has cost us . I thought that with all the evidence we had, and the witnesses that had seen the situation, that the judge would see that I was innocent and there would be no need to have a trial. Our lawyer did not tell us that the judge never heard our side of the story and convinced us that if we agreed to the reduced charge it would be no more serious than a traffic ticket. However, I feel we were the victims of bad advice and feel very bad that we were not given a chance to say a word in our defense. All of these problems came about because Officer Hosford falsely arrested me and unjustly precipitated the arrest of my daughter. If this man had been a decent policeman carrying out his duties to protect and serve, none of this would have happened. I want my record cleared of this rediculous charge and my daughter should not have a record for the rest of her life brought about by the provoking, brutal actions of Officer Hosford. Knowing ",. ... - . r.._ .. .. . ' ...,, ' full well how this policeman falsified his report on my daughter and myself leads me to wonder how many other people have been unjustly treated by such officers . I would like the record of Officer Hosford (Badge # 1 5 1 98) to be e x amined a s I know others hav e suffered from h is u nprofessional action s . Geri L. Jamba |
Filename | indep-box23-10-15.pdf |
Archival file | Volume73/indep-box23-10-15.pdf |