Videos show confrontation between Gabbi Lemos and Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office released body camera videos Thursday that show most of a confrontation between deputies and a Petaluma teen and her family that is the focus of a police brutality lawsuit.
The videos show the family of 18-year-old Gabbi Lemos arguing with a deputy, as well as the moment sheriff's officials say Lemos interfered with an investigation. They show glimpses of the arrest of the teen, who was forced to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a sheriff's patrol car.
Prosecutors and attorneys for the family each said the videos support their divergent accounts of what happened June 13 on the Lemos family's Liberty Road property.
The videos, along with a recording of a phone call Lemos made to her mother from jail, were made public earlier Thursday during a legal hearing. They were taken from body cameras worn by deputies who responded to what one deputy believed to be a possible domestic disturbance.
In the first video, Deputy Marcus Holton, who had reported to dispatchers that he heard yelling and was investigating a possible disturbance, opens the passenger door of a truck to talk with Lemos' sister, Karli LaBruzzi. At that point, Lemos steps up to Holton - placing herself up against him and between the deputy and the open car door - and declares he shouldn't have opened the door.
“Officer, what are you doing? You're not allowed to do that, you're not allowed to go in the car,” Lemos says.
The Sheriff's Office, which previously denied The Press Democrat's request to view the footage, put the videos online and on social media.
Prosecutors presented the evidence to Judge Gary Medvigy on Thursday morning in an unusual move that suddenly made public recordings and other material that would normally only be released during the course of a jury trial.
District Attorney Jill Ravitch said the goal is to overcome the allegation of vindictive prosecution lodged by Lemos' lawyer, Isaak Schwaiger.
Schwaiger said prosecutors charged Lemos with misdemeanor resisting arrest because she filed a police brutality lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. A resisting arrest conviction would prevent Lemos from pursuing her federal lawsuit.
“The allegation is that we've done something to harm Ms. Lemos after she filed the civil case - that is simply not true,” Ravitch said. “What's true is we took another look at a pending case that was submitted for our review and we decided that the case should be filed.”
Schwaiger said the videos show two things: that force was used and there was no legal justification for it.
The deputy did not have a reasonable suspicion a crime had occurred when he opened the truck door and Lemos was within her rights to try to stop him, said Schwaiger, who has had his own copies of the videos for some time.
“It is not a crime to interfere with an officer who is unlawfully performing his duties,” the attorney said. “Once he's breaking the law, there is nothing wrong with her standing up and saying, ‘You can't do that.' It is perfectly justified.”
Instead of leaving, Holton shoved Lemos by the neck and later tackled her when she tried to walk back into her own house, Schwaiger said.
“He comes up behind her, grabs her by the head and throws her down,” the attorney said. “That shows excessive force.”
Sheriff's Capt. Clint Shubel said that Holton, in his report, said he heard yelling when he drove up behind an idling truck and trailer in the road outside the Lemos property. Holton reported he heard yelling and then saw a man - later determined to be LaBruzzi's boyfriend - quickly walking down the driveway toward the truck with women behind him screaming.
Shubel said law enforcement is under added obligation to persevere to find the truth when investigating possible domestic violence.
The recordings that begin just after 11 p.m. on the darkened rural lane northwest of Petaluma do not offer a clear picture of the moment Holton arrested Lemos as she walked away from him. Holton pushed her to the ground on her family's gravel driveway. Another deputy's camera shows her mother and two sisters running toward Holton, and another camera angle shows a deputy pulling the mother away from Holton.
The Sheriff's Office also requested resisting arrest charges against the other women, but prosecutors did not charge them.
The recordings show Lemos; her mother, Michelle Lemos and her two sisters opposed Holton's presence from the start. They repeatedly tell Holton there was nothing to investigate and that he had no right to open the car door.
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