The Los Angeles Times reports that the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has finally decided to drop the assault charges against an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy who used a taser on a handcuffed suspect while sitting in the back of a squad car.

Earlier this week, a mistrial was declared in the trial of O.C. Sheriff’s Deputy Christopher Hibbs after the jury deadlocked in deciding whether Hibbs used excessive force is stunning Ignacio Lares, a convicted felon with outstanding warrants, while he was hancuffed in the back of the squad car. The jury was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of not guilty.

Prosecutors argued that their case was stymied by what prosecutor Israel Claustro described as a “blue wall of silence” to shield Hibbs from conviction. The prosecutor had argued that Hibbs had used excessive force after Lares refused to identify himself. At trial, Hibbs’ criminal defense attorney, Robert Gazley, argued that his client “used the lowest level of force” to control the situation. He argued that Lares was high on methamphetamine at the time, demanded to be released from the squad car and stuck his foot in the doorjamb in an apparent attempt to escape.

On Friday, Orange County District Attorney representative Susan Kang Schroeder cited “inconsistencies and minimization of the evidence” in the deputies’ testimony that would preclude victory at a retrial as the reason for dropping the charges. She went on to add “[w]e believe it’s important for law enforcement officers to act in an ethical way and to follow the law.”

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens took offense to the remarks made by King. Hutchens stated “[i]t’s an unfair characterization to make that you lost a case because of deputy sheriffs’ testimony” and went on to add that it was the Sheriff’s Department that brought the case to the attention of the district attorney in the first place.

The Hibbs case marks the latest in a recent line of disputes between the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Other recent disputes include:

• A grand jury investigation impanaled by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas into the beating death of an inmate at the Theo Lacy Jail which is controlled by the Sheriff’s Department;
• In September, Rackauckas accused the Sheriff’s Department of conducting a lacklluster investigation into child molestation charges against a deputy who committed suicidce before he could be arrested; and
• Fighting over control of the county’s DNA database which has come under great scrunity lately for a backlog on untested DNA evidence.

Tags: assault charges dropped, blue wall of silence, Christopher Hibbs, deputy christopher hibbs, excessive force, mistrial, orange county district attorney, orange county sheriff's deputy, taser

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009

at 12:04 amconditions and is filed under Police Crimes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.