DA drops charges against cops caught on video beating up unarmed college student

[alp227]

San Jose: DA won't charge cops in videotaped beating
by Sean Webby
San Jose Mercury News
March 3, 2010

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office has decided not to indict two San Jose police officers whose violent arrest of an unarmed Vietnamese college student was caught on video last year, District Attorney Dolores Carr announced this morning.

Carr said there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers used excessive force when they arrested 21-year-old Phuong Ho on Sept. 3.

The widely anticipated decision comes about a week after all criminal charges were dropped against Ho, who was struck repeatedly with a metal baton and stunned with a Taser.

--snip--

The controversial case began Sept. 3 when police responded to a disturbance call that stemmed from a dispute that Ho was having with a roommate. At one point, Ho, a math major from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, picked up a knife and vaguely threatened his roommate for having spilled soap on Ho's dinner steak.

Ho was in his room and did not have the knife when officers Siegel and Steven Payne Jr. arrived. As he tried to follow Siegel into his bedroom, Ho was knocked to the ground in the hallway when he disobeyed the police order not to follow them, their reports show. Then, another roommate began taking a cell phone video of the incident, as Siegel repeatedly struck Ho with a baton, and Payne shocked him with a Taser. Two other officers were on the scene, but reportedly did not use force.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-police-under-fire/ci_14504898

Also, the Mercury News has a series of special reports on SJPD brutality and racial profiling controversies:

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-police-under-fire

[ixion]

1. Way to obstruct justice, Santa Clara DA

you do the fascists proud.

[demosincebirth]

2. This is only one, that we know of.