4 Calif. Cops on Leave After Beating

(CBS/AP)  San Jose police say four officers present at the beating of an unarmed Vietnamese student have been placed on leave.

A police report said the officers hit 20-year-old Phuong Ho more than ten times with a metal baton and used a Taser gun as they took him into custody inside his home last month.

CBS Station KPIX correspondent Don Knapp reports that as Ho was arrested, a cell phone video taken by one of Ho's roommates shows police repeatedly hitting the suspect, including at least one baton strike that appears to come after Ho is handcuffed and on the floor.

The video of the September 3 incident, first posted by the San Jose Mercury News on its Web site late Saturday, prompted a criminal investigation.

"It takes me back to the day I saw the Rodney King video on TV," said Roger Clark, a police expert and a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

The last baton strike ought to bring a felony charge, Clark said.

San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said officers Kenneth Siegel, Steven Payne Jr., Jerome Smith and Gabriel Reyes have been placed on paid leave.

Police reports said Siegel used his baton and Payne used his Taser as Ho kicked and refused to heed orders.

Siegel's attorney, Terry Bowman, said the video leaves out details that would show why the officers acted as they did.

The video, made without the knowledge of officers at the scene, shows force being used even though the suspect was on the ground, and apparently offering no physical threat to the officers.

The confrontation began Sept. 3 when Ho's roommate, Jeremy Suftin, put soap on Ho's steak. The two men scuffled, and Ho picked up a steak knife, saying that in his home country he would have killed Suftin for doing what he did.

Police were called, and four officers responded.

Ho was not armed when police arrived. He told the Mercury News he didn't resist arrest.

Officer Kenneth Siegel encountered Ho in the hallway, but couldn't understand the student's accent, police reports said. Ho then ignored a police command to stand still, reports said.

When Ho tried to follow Siegel into his room, Officer Steven Payne Jr. moved to handcuff Ho. Payne wrote in his report that he pushed the student into a wall and then forced him to the floor when he resisted being handcuffed.

Ho, who weighs more than 200 lbs., said his glasses fell off. As he went to pick them up, the officers struck him, he said.

(KPIX)

"They said I was kicking, but my leg was shaking, because, like, four guys were hitting me with a baton. Well, any man would react that way," Ho (left) told CBS Station KPIX.

Another one of Ho's roommates, Dimitri Masouris, captured the events on his cell phone. An officer can be heard on the video shouting, "Turn over!" Ho can be heard moaning and crying as he's struck.

"In philosophy, they call it 'dehumanization,'" Ho told the Mercury News. "So when they think me a dangerous guy, they don't treat me like I was human. They hit me like an animal or something."

He faces misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.

Masouris said he considered the police response excessive. He sold the tape to San Jose lawyer Duyen Hoang Nguyen, who is representing Ho.

The Mercury News obtained a copy of the video and showed it to Daniel Katz, San Jose's assistant police chief. The police department is taking the matter very seriously, he said.

The city's large Vietnamese-American community is already angry over the police shooting of a mentally ill Vietnamese man in May, the newspaper said in an editorial about Ho's beating. The lack of public disclosure in the investigation that followed was also a problem, the paper said.

The grainy, shaky video is difficult to view, and does not show what transpired before the police responded with blows.

But the violence raised serious concerns.

"Once he is handcuffed, then he is helpless," said Frank Jordan, a former San Francisco police chief and mayor. "If you can show that his hands are behind his back, and he is handcuffed, that is where you get brutality. That would be excessive force."

Siegel and Payne didn't respond to written requests for comment sent through department officials and their union.

Sean Webby of the Mercury News said he does not think Ho is still suffering from injuries but, he told KPIX, "he was pretty beaten up after the incident."

"He had to have a series of staples put in his head, and in his legs, and he had to be treated for a Taser burn," Webby said.

"It's wrong. I can't imagine that something like this would happen in this country," said Ho.


To view the video report from CBS Station KPIX click on the player below

Brutality Allegations Against San Jose Police Dept.

[knphamcnet]

Breaking news ?

This?s just in from CBS (Corrections Before Sorry.) The whole incident was a hoax, just like the balloon boy one as the mother has confessed.
It was an exercise by the SJPD, that was once a model PD admired and mimicked by other PDs through out the country. But those were the days, my friend.
The exercise was a drill to teach police officers of what NOT to do.
What police officers DO NOT do are:
1) When a person is down on his or her stomach with the legs kicking up and screaming out of pains and for his life then DO NOT BEAT HIM/HER UP or TASER especially when you have four officers weighing a total of 700 to 900 lbs and the suspect only around 130 lbs
2) Act like other third world countries as we saw about police brutalities in IRAN or
the TALIBANS beating up women.
3) Act like gangsters (because YOU are to enforce the LAWS of this civil nation)
4) Act like the wild wild west. That was long ago.
5) Lie to protect your paycheck (Be a man and do the right things)
This was a hoax, folks. And like balloon boy said ?we did it for the show.? This kind of thing would never happen in this great land of ours.
And if it does happen then it must be in a dream. A very bad one, baby, a very bad one.

[Ceres6]

There is no doubt that many police officers really care about the people they are supposed to protect. However, there are some that believe that because they have a badge, they are above the law and have the right to brutalize people. I have seen people completely subdued and defenseless, and cops jumping on them with their knees in front, in such a way that the intention is simply to cause serious internal injuries. And because they have a code of silence, when a rogue cop commits a brutal act, most of the time the decent officers that witness the crime will remain quiet.

[Ceres6]

After a mickey mouse investigation, the final outcome is that the four macho officers will be declared caring angels and indispensable assets to the community.

[wyodutch]

Take the cops out of their cars and back walking a beat... Make them part of the community again. They are supposed to be servants of the people... not some jackbooted praetorian guard.

[missme4]

"the video leaves out details that would show why the officers acted as they did. "


Please explain what possible reason a cop has to hit a subdued and hand cuffed person.

[bullwinkle64]

This is a big country. Nearly 300 million people. Thousands of people are being beaten illegally by the police each and everyday. I'm so old I remember when it was just in the hundreds. They get caught red-handed so infrequently it never enters their minds to stop doing it. Call them career criminals with a badge. Some people get their thrills inflicting pain. How can you inflict pain to others as a pastime without going to prison. You have to wear a badge. That's the only viable option. It's been going on forever and it's not going to end. It's a sickness of the mind that cannot be cured.

[ludvig1-2009]

It all started over a roommate playing a practical joke on the other roommate, i.e. putting soap on his steak. I remember when I was in college and these 2 frat brothers escalated practical jokes on one another, e.g. putting some super stinky thing in a car's ventilation system. It ended when one of the guys came into the eating area poured milk in a bowl and dumped it on the other guys head.

[nowhiningallowed]

Yes, these officers were wrong and the system will punish them for their behavior. I just wish all those that are quick to lash out against the cops whenever they do something like this isolated incidence, given the hundreds of thousands of decent, moral and law abiding cops, and equally lash out against criminals who stalk, prey upon, beat up, shoot at, injure, maime, kill, or just plain disobey cops when they order criminals who are fleeing to stop. Where's the outrage when a cops are killed by criminals. The complaints and condemnation should be given under both circumstances, not just the hypocritical and sanctimonious hollow outrage.

[toldyouso21]

"It's wrong. I can't imagine that something like this would happen in this country," said Ho.


If you can't imagine it, then where have you been for the past 15 years Ho? Take a good look around you, we have the infamous Rodney King Beatings then we have the almost quarterly "taze til they die or are severely injured...videos...then we have the big cops beat the crapoloa out of a citizen videos--all on you tube--when your fingers are better, go check them out--and recognize--you don't speak out, then don't be surprised when its your turn.

Abuse and power corruption recognize neither race or color. Unless it is the color green and the race of politics and connections.

[toldyouso21]

Uh oh... they are going after the Asians now.....

"First they came for the ______ and I did nothing because I was not a _____. Next, they came for the ___________ and I said and did nothing, because I am not a __________-. Then they came for the ___@___ and still, I said and did nothing for I am not a ___@____. Then they came for "me" and there was no one left to help, or to scream, or to do anything" (liberty taken from a speech written by a priest, after the holocaust)

We did not stop it when it was mostly blacks, then they came for hispanics and we did not stop it when it was hispanics..then they came for poor whites..and we did not stop it or speak out when it was poor whites, next they come for middle class whites and we look on and many of us don't stop it because it is not us, or our loved ones--then they came for the Arabic or muslim and now--for the Asians-- the irony is, Asians and Indians are the most law abiding and keep their heads down and seldom protest or advocate for any other group here in America.

So now it is them. The price of silence. Soon, it will be the rest of us. Shall we go into the night without a whimper? Without a fight?