The San Mateo County criminal grand jury has indicted two East Palo Alto police officers and a police explorer for allegedly beating an East Palo Alto man on Aug. 21.
Officer Edward Rivers Jr., Officer Johnny Taflinger Jr., and Explorer Eddi Tapia Torres each face two felony charges and one misdemeanor charge, including assault on a citizen under color of authority, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and misdemeanor battery. The men appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court this morning.
The suspects were off duty in East Palo Alto when they encountered a man they believed to be a local drug dealer "and tried to deal with him in a manner that isn't appropriate," said Jim Fox, San Mateo County district attorney.
"He had been told by them that they were police officers," Fox said Friday. "Interestingly, the victim didn't believe that they were police officers because of the way he was beaten."
The man never filed a complaint with the Police Department about the assault.
"He just thought that these were just strangers that were out of control," Fox said. The District Attorney's Office learned of the incident through someone else, he said.
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Prosecutors have investigated the case for more than a month. The Police Department cooperated with the investigation and placed the officers on administrative leave about two weeks ago, Fox said.
The grand jury returned the indictment on Wednesday after hearing three days of testimony presented by the District Attorney's Office.
The defendants appeared before Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum this morning. Rivers and Taflinger appeared with retained counsel Craig Brown. Tapia Torres appeared with appointed counsel Edward Pomeroy.
Forcum set bail at $25,000 for Rivers and Taflinger. Tapia Torres was released on supervised own recognizance. Fox noted that Tapia Torres, 18, was enrolled in the explorer program to learn about police work by example of the older officers.
"Unfortunately, this was not a good example of public service," Fox said.
The defendants will appear in court again on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. for further arraignment and to enter pleas.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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