A Sonoma, Calif., teenager has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office stemming from a violent altercation with police last June.
But the Sherriff’s office on Thursday released hours of body camera footage they say proves the officer’s use of force was justified.
Posted to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office official YouTube channel, the videos document the events before, during and after the arrest of Gabrielle Lemos on June 14, 2015 by Deputy Marcus Holton, whose body camera recorded the altercation.
According to a press release from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Holton “was in a rural area of Sonoma County when he happened upon a parked pickup truck and trailer that was blocking the road.”
Holton says he then heard a woman scream from a nearby house, followed by a man walking towards the pickup truck with several women yelling at him.
“Based on what he saw and heard he suspected he had encountered a domestic related incident,” the press release reads.
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After questioning the man, Holton walks over to question four women standing near the pickup truck.
What follows is a tense confrontation between Holton, along with another deputy who arrived a short time later, and the group of women which includes Lemos.
“I’m not the bad guy here,” Holton says at one point. “I’m driving down the road … people are yelling, there’s a car stopped in the roadway … I’m not going to leave until I resolve this.”
“There’s nothing to resolve!” Lemos insists. “Now you’re just causing more traffic in the road.”
While Holton goes to question the woman inside the pickup truck, the video shows Lemos moving to block his path and the officer pushing her aside, which incenses the group of women nearby and escalates an already tense situation.
As Holton repeatedly asks the group to calm down, they insist the officer is acting out of line and demand a female officer be brought down to question them.
Eventually, Lemos turns to walk away from the officer as he demands she stop. When she doesn’t, Holton tackles Lemos.
Lemos’ suffered multiple cuts on her face. She was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
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The department also released multiple recorded phone calls from Lemos to her mother from inside the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility.
In one call, they can be heard referring to Holton as a “black piece of s*it” and a “N*gger cop”.
The videos were released to the public after being entered as evidence in Lemos’ case. Both sides say the video recordings vindicate their version of events.
“Here is the video of a Sonoma County Sheriff’s assault on an innocent girl,” Lemos’ lawyer Izaak Schwaiger wrote on his Facebook page. “Share far and wide.”
But the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office say they’re confident the video shows Holton acted appropriately.
“[Holton’s] conduct and that of the other deputies involved has been reviewed by Sheriff’s Office Administrators and we are confident they acted honourably and appropriately during this tense rapidly evolving situation.”
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