Man gets 18 years prison for assaulting police officer

After undergoing multiple surgeries and spending hours in rehabilitation, Chon returned to light duty in January of 2018, more than a year after the attack, according to the department previously.

Ramos-Coreas allegedly apologized Tuesday to Chon and his family for the lifelong injuries he inflicted upon him. Though his defense attorney Jim Reilly asked Novak to consider his client’s history of mental health issues and a 9-year prison sentence, Novak allegedly said she felt she had a duty to protect the community from Ramos-Coreas’ conduct and imposed an 18-year prison term after he was convicted in November of felony assault on a police officer, according to prosecutors.

At around 2:20 p.m. Nov. 24, 2016, Ramos-Coreas hit Chon in the head with his skateboard after the officer responded to a report of a man acting irate toward patrons outside a business on the 300 block of Grand Avenue, according to prosecutors and police previously.

When officers arrived on the scene, they tried to approach Ramos-Coreas, who was allegedly causing the disturbance, police said previously.

Ramos-Coreas is said to have refused to comply with the officers’ requests. When additional officers arrived, Ramos-Coreas fled on a skateboard and Chon began chasing him, according to prosecutors.

During the chase, Ramos-Coreas was allegedly stopped when another police officer driving in a patrol vehicle drove in front of him, causing him to crash into the vehicle and run around it on foot, according to Reilly’s sentencing memorandum. Ramos allegedly swung the skateboard behind him and to his left in an effort to stop Chon from chasing him, hitting Chon in the head and causing life-threatening injuries, according to Reilly’s memo.

Chon lost consciousness in the attack, suffered a skull fracture and required brain surgery to stop some bleeding, according to prosecutors.

After nine days of jury trial, on Nov. 30 a jury found Ramos-Coreas guilty of felony assault on a police officer, resisting a police officer and battery causing serious bodily damage but determined he was not guilty of attempted murder of Chon, a charge that carried a potential life sentence. In March, Ramos-Coreas entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity but, in withdrawing the plea Dec. 3, he prevented the trial from going into a second phase in which jurors would decide whether he was insane at the time of the crime, according to prosecutors previously.

Insanity is a person’s mental state at the time of a crime while competency is a defendant’s ability to aid in their own defense.

Wagstaffe said prosecutors did not believe Ramos-Coreas has any genuine remorse for what he did and was grateful to Novak for the 18-year sentence, adding what Ramos-Coreas did to a police officer with a family is an atrocity.

“I’m very saddened that Officer Chon has lost the ability to pursue a career he always wanted and he will suffer from this crime for the rest of his life … but justice was done today and I am pleased for that,” he said.

Reilly said he has a great deal of sympathy for Chon given the serious nature of his injuries and the end of his career as a police officer and acknowledged the case is a tough one. But he noted Ramos-Coreas’ problems were more rooted in mental health issues than criminal intent, adding his client testified when he swung his skateboard behind him he was trying to get the officer to stop chasing him and didn’t intend for the incident to have the consequences it did.

Ramos-Coreas was allegedly off of his medication and sleep-deprived the day of the incident and was contacted by police officers for disruptive conduct twice before Chon interacted with him, according to Reilly’s memo. A report filed Jan. 31, 2017, by Dr. David Berke noted Ramos-Coreas had to have been psychiatrically hospitalized at least six times for being a danger to himself or others and jail reports reflected Ramos remained psychotic after his arrest, according to Reilly’s memo.

“He was not acting out of criminal intent, he wasn’t trying to hurt anybody,” he said. “He just had a mental health problem that interfered with his judgment.”

Ramos-Coreas has been in custody on $2 million bail since his arrest and will receive 900 days credit for time served, according to prosecutors.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106