When Los Angeles Police Department Officer Richard Garcia pleaded no contest to a charge of assault under color of authority in May 2016, video of his October 2014 arrest of Clinton Alford, Jr. was okayed to be released to the public. Of course, the LAPD held on to it. But the L.A. Times filed a court order for the three-minute video, which was finally released on Tuesday.
Alford had been riding his bicycle when he said a car pulled up behind him and someone yelled at him to stop, grabbing his bike from the back. Alford says he jumped off the bike and ran. Police say that Alford matched the description of someone suspected of a robbery. Surveillance footage from a business shows Alford running slowly down a sidewalk when he suddenly ducks behind a car. Two officers then appear in the frame and almost run past Alford; Alford comes out and attempts to run in the other direction but gets down on the ground as the two officers draw their guns on him. Alford appears to be compliant with the officers, and non-threatening.
Then a police car rushes up. The video shows Garcia getting out and running directly toward Alford before delivering the blows.
Garcia and another officer told investigators that Alford refused their orders and resisted after he was on the ground, according to a report from Beck made public last fall. Garcia said he punched and elbowed Alford to “cause Alford discomfort” and later used his knee to hit him because he thought Alford was reaching toward his shorts for a weapon.
After viewing the video, Beck concluded the officer’s actions were not reasonable “given Alford’s limited and unapparent resistance,” his report said. The chief and Police Commission determined Garcia violated department rules during the arrest. Seven months later, prosecutors charged him with assault.
In the video, available here, Garcia is seen running up and kicking Alford—who is already subdued by the two officers on the scene—in the head.
He then drops down on Alford with his knee in Alford’s back and begins to drop his elbow, professional wrestling-style, on top of Alford’s head at least three times. Garcia can also be seen rising up off of Alford and slamming his knee back down into Alford two times. Alford alleges he was also punched and slapped by Garcia. Garcia remains on Alford’s back for the rest of the video as other officers appear to look for something near the vehicle Alford ducked behind. At the end of the video, three officers lift up a limp Alford and take him away.
Although the district attorney’s office made the initial decision to charge Garcia with a felony, they changed their tune earlier this year
The LAPD and the civilian Police Commission came down hard on Officer Richard Garcia, saying he violated department policies when he kicked and punched Clinton Alford Jr. during an October 2014 arrest in South Los Angeles. The district attorney came down even harder, taking the rare step of filing a felony assault charge against an on-duty officer.
Garcia faced up to three years in jail if convicted.
Then the case quietly came to an end.
Under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors this spring, Garcia pleaded no contest to the felony charge as part of a deal with prosecutors that will see him avoid jail time if he completes community service and donates $500 to a charity by late May 2017. Under the agreement, Garcia would then be allowed to enter a new plea to a misdemeanor charge that would replace the felony and would be placed on two years of probation, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said.
Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey has yet to “detail the reasons for the plea.”
In the quest for greater accountability and transparency in U.S. police departments, demands must also be made of prosecutors—the ones who say they represent the people in the interest of justice.