The San Benito County Sheriff’s deputy charged with felony
battery at a baseball playoff game is also being investigated by
the sheriff’s department for a citizen complaint alleging assault
and battery, and was ensnared in a controversy surrounding the
highly-publicized shooting of a Riverside woman five years ago.
By Erin Musgrave Staff Writer
Hollister – The San Benito County Sheriff’s deputy charged with felony battery at a baseball playoff game is also being investigated by the sheriff’s department for a citizen complaint alleging assault and battery, and was ensnared in a controversy surrounding the highly-publicized shooting of a Riverside woman five years ago.
Deputy David Hackman, 32, was charged this week by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office with felony battery causing serious bodily injury after he allegedly attacked a man at a Boston Red Sox/Anaheim Angels baseball playoff game in Anaheim on Oct. 6. The attack left the man with a fractured skull and two fractured vertebrae, according to Michael Pear, deputy district attorney for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Hackman could be terminated depending on an internal investigation by the sheriff’s department, said Sheriff Curtis Hill. If he is fired he could lose his pension, Hill said.
Hackman began his career in San Benito County in 2000 when he was hired by the Hollister Police Department, but left about a year later to join the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department, according to city and county personnel.
Before that he was an officer with the Riverside Police Department. According to a report issued by CNN.com, Hackman was suspended from duty after making a racist remark at the scene following the shooting of a 19-year-old black woman, Tyisha Miller, by other officers.
Miller was shot and killed on Dec. 28, 1999, by four white Riverside police officers. She was sitting in a car, apparently unconscious, with a gun in her lap when officers arrived after being called by her cousin, according to the CNN.com article.
The officers couldn’t get Miller’s attention, and when one of them broke the car window officers said Miller reached for her gun so they opened fire on her. They fired 23 bullets, hitting her 12 times, according to the article.
Hackman left the Riverside department in May of 2000, according to Internal Affairs Lt. Meridyth Meridith.
Meridith wouldn’t comment on the reason for Hackman’s departure because it was a personnel issue, she said.
Hackman could not be reached for comment, and Pear and Hill do not know who his attorney is.
Hill said his office knew about the incident in Riverside and did a thorough background check on Hackman before hiring him in 2001.
“He was not directly involved (in the shooting). He made a comment he shouldn’t have,” Hill said. “He had moved beyond that point (the comment). He was a good employee for us. He was a real professional.”
Hill said a citizen complaint against Hackman, who has been on and off duty for the past 10 months for a medical issue, was filed about three weeks ago in regards to an arrest Hackman and another deputy made in April of this year.
Hackman and Deputy David Zander arrested 70-year-old Hollister resident Jose Jimenez on April 23 when they found him sleeping inside a house on Lanini Drive, which was owned by a woman who Jimenez did work around the house for, according to Hackman’s incident report.
Jimenez had been drinking and was asleep on the living room floor when the deputies entered the home, according to the report. When the deputies attempted to rouse Jimenez and take him into custody, Jimenez got up, yelled “I’m going to kill you,” and lunged at Zander, according to the report.
Jimenez continued to resist, but when Jimenez would not show deputies his left hand, Hackman kicked Jimenez’s left arm and side two times with his right foot because he feared Jimenez was trying to find a weapon with his hand, according to Hackman’s report.
Jimenez kept resisting and when Zander sprayed a one-second burst of pepper spray on him it had no effect, according to the report.
“Still in fear for our safety, I grabbed my department-issued flashlight and I struck Jimenez two times in his left arm and left side,” Hackman said in his report. “After the two strikes, Jimenez complied and he was placed in handcuffs by Zander and me.”
According to Hackman’s report, Jimenez was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 155 pounds. Hackman is 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 210 pounds, according to Pear.
Jimenez was booked into the San Benito County Jail and was not taken to the hospital because Hackman said in his report that he “did not see any visible injuries on Jimenez,” and that he “did not have any complaint of pain/injury.”
According to a medical report taken at Hazel Hawkins Hospital two days later, Jimenez suffered two broken ribs.
Jimenez’s public defender, Margaret Thorning, said Hackman’s behavior during the incident was a “complete overreaction and inappropriate.”
“I don’t know Hackman, but this was a 70-year-old, 150-pound, old man, and it couldn’t have warranted him being kicked and hit with a flashlight to where he has kidney damage to this day,” she said. “An officer should know better than that. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s got more trouble going on and I think he needs to be taken off the streets.”
Jimenez was charged with resisting arrest, trespassing, threatening an officer and being drunk in public, but his charges were reduced and he plead no contest to disturbing the peace, an infraction, said District Attorney John Sarsfield.
Jimenez was fined $440 and did not serve any jail time, Sarsfield said.
Civil rights activist Frank Valenzuela, a former officer with the Hollister Police Department and former probation officer with the San Benito County Probation Department, filed a complaint with the sheriff’s department three weeks ago against both deputies for battering Jimenez, he said.
Valenzuela said he wants criminal charges brought against Hackman and Zander and monetary damages for Jimenez’s pain and suffering.
He said he has contacted Hill and Sarsfield but they refuse to cooperate.
“They think they’re doing the right thing – protecting the officers. They think the officers have a right to violate the law,” he said. “(The deputies) claimed they didn’t know he was hurt. The poor guy could hardly stand from the pain.”
Hill said he received a letter from Valenzuela and forwarded it to the county attorney, but he has never talked to Valenzuela on the phone or in person. He said the complaint was the only one filed against Hackman.
“I’ve assigned that to a sergeant who’s doing that investigation,” he said. “But I’m not able to talk about (the incident) because I’d be violating the police officer’s bill of rights.”
Sarsfield also said he received a letter from Valenzuela about the incident, but he doesn’t remember if he talked to him or not.
“I don’t remember talking to him at all,” Sarsfield said. “I’m not saying I didn’t, I simply do not recall talking to him.”
Hackman’s first court date for the felony battery charge is scheduled for Nov. 29 in Orange County. If he is convicted of the felony assault he could receive a maximum of four years in prison, said Pear, Orange County deputy district attorney.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
