For greater than two hours, Emmett Brock waited outdoors a Downey courtroom. He sat, he stood, he fidgeted, he paced within the emptying hallway. Lastly, he heard his identify and went inside.
It was March 8, 2024, precisely 392 days after he’d been overwhelmed by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in entrance of a 7-Eleven, then arrested and accused of biting the lawman who pummeled him. Afterward, he’d been despatched to the Norwalk station lockup and booked for 3 felonies and a misdemeanor. By the point prosecutors dropped the case seven months later, he’d already misplaced his highschool instructing job.
It had been a painful 12 months, and to place it behind him Brock needed a decide to declare him harmless. His lawyer had filed the paperwork, and now Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Decide Evan Kitahara was going to determine on the request.
Twenty minutes after getting into the courtroom, Brock walked out an harmless man.
Simply over per week later, he filed a federal lawsuit accusing the deputy of “felony crimes” and alleging the division had lined them up.
“I can lastly exhale,” Brock instructed The Instances after studying of the decide’s choice. “It felt like I’d been holding my breath for over a 12 months.”
Even when the brand new developments carry some peace of thoughts for the Whittier man, they might sign bother for the deputy who arrested him. When Deputy Joseph Benza made the February 2023 arrest, he signed a declaration beneath penalty of perjury saying Brock had bitten him.
At this month’s listening to, Kitahara decided there was “no proof” of that.
Benza is “inclined to being decertified,” stated Brock’s lawyer, Thomas Beck, suggesting the deputy may lose his California peace officer certification for alleged dishonesty and be banned from working in regulation enforcement. “And on the use-of-force challenge, he might be prosecuted.”
In accordance with paperwork Beck filed in court docket, the FBI has been trying into the case since final 12 months. The Los Angeles County district lawyer’s workplace confirmed to The Instances this week that native prosecutors are reviewing the matter as nicely.
Lawyer Tom Yu, who’s representing Benza, has maintained for months that his shopper didn’t do something mistaken. And information present a Sheriff’s Division overview final 12 months cleared the deputy’s use of pressure.
“I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Beck’s illustration of what occurred,” Yu wrote to The Instances in an electronic mail. “I’m assured that the federal decide will throw all the suspect’s claims out throughout this litigation.”
The Sheriff’s Division stated in a press release Monday that it had not been served with the lawsuit however confirmed the incident had been investigated and the findings are beneath overview.
“Our high precedence is the security of everybody concerned in any encounter,” the assertion stated.
On the morning of Feb. 10, 2023, Brock had simply left work at Frontier Excessive Faculty when he noticed a deputy who seemed to be berating a girl on the facet of the street. As he drove by, Brock casually threw up his center finger, considering the deputy wouldn’t see it.
Emmett Brock was driving house from his job as a trainer when he was stopped and overwhelmed by a deputy outdoors of a 7-Eleven.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Instances)
In accordance to the lawsuit filed this week, the deputy deserted the roadside confrontation, hopped in his cruiser and began tailing Brock. Every time Brock made a flip, the cruiser mirrored his transfer — however the deputy inside didn’t activate the lights or sirens and didn’t attempt to pull him over, Brock stated.
Fearing he was being adopted by somebody impersonating a police officer, Brock referred to as 911 and requested what to do.
“If he hasn’t pulled you over, he hasn’t pulled you over,” the dispatcher stated, in response to a recording of the decision shared with The Instances.
However a couple of minutes later, Brock pulled right into a 7-Eleven parking zone on Mills Avenue in Whittier. As he stepped out to purchase a drink, the deputy approached him.
“I simply stopped you,” Benza stated, with out explaining why.
“No, you didn’t,” Brock replied, in response to an audio recording captured by the deputy’s physique digital camera.
“Yeah, I did,” the deputy stated, grabbing Brock’s arm. The deputy then “overwhelmed younger Brock,” in response to the lawsuit, and “with out uttering one other phrase, violently took Brock to the pavement.”
For the subsequent three minutes Brock struggled because the deputy held him down, all of it captured on the 7-Eleven’s surveillance digital camera.
“You’re going to kill me! You’re going to f— kill me,” Brock shouted, screaming for the deputy to cease.
“As an alternative Benza rained a minimum of 10 closed fist punches at Brock’s head and face,” the swimsuit says, “whereas Benza used his better physique weight to pin the plaintiff to the bottom as he continued to angrily pummel Brock with each fists, scraping his knuckles within the course of.”
After Brock was in handcuffs, the deputy put him into the again seat of his cruiser. Brock was bloodied and his glasses had been damaged however, in response to the lawsuit, the deputy nonetheless hadn’t defined why he’d stopped him.
When a sergeant arrived on scene, Brock instructed him he’d been overwhelmed in retaliation for giving a deputy the finger — an act that might have been a violation of the division’s coverage explicitly banning the usage of pressure in retaliation for disrespect.
“As an alternative of instantly recognizing Benza had dedicated a felony crime of assault towards Brock,” the swimsuit stated, the sergeant “purposefully ignored plaintiff’s complaints and took no motion.”
As different deputies arrived, Benza confirmed them his bruised knuckles and blamed Brock — however he didn’t say something about being bitten, in response to the lawsuit. When paramedics arrived, the swimsuit says, he didn’t inform them something a couple of chunk, both.
Earlier than leaving to return to the station, Benza and several other sergeants walked into the 7-Eleven, in response to a 32-page innocence petition Beck filed in court docket on Brock’s behalf. The lawmen went into the shop’s digital camera room and stayed there for slightly over 10 minutes, “presumably screening the audio-free 7-Eleven video recording of the assault,” Beck wrote within the petition.
“With information of this damaging proof,” Beck continued, the deputy drove again to the station and “falsely reported” to a supervisor that he’d solely thrown punches as a result of Brock had bitten his fingers.
Then, the petition says, Benza went to pressing care and stated he’d been bitten on his proper hand — although the doctor assistant who handled him wrote in his report that there was bruising however “no chunk marks.”
After he left pressing care, Benza filed his declaration beneath penalty of perjury saying he’d been bitten on his left hand. He stated the incident began when he’d been on a routine patrol and determined to cease Brock after recognizing an air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror. He disregarded any point out of stopping a girl on the facet of the street and stated nothing about Brock giving him the finger.
In an interview with The Instances final 12 months, Benza’s lawyer stated that’s as a result of the particular person Brock handed on the facet of the street wasn’t his shopper, however one other regulation enforcement officer in all probability from one other company.
Now, Beck stated, there’s proof to disprove that.
“I’ve been suggested that the FBI has downloaded Benza’s cellular phone GPS information and was capable of corroborate Mr. Brock’s declare of being pursued alongside the route Benza claimed he by no means took,” Beck wrote within the innocence petition. (The FBI instructed The Instances this week that it doesn’t affirm or deny the existence of investigations.)
When he was taken to the Norwalk station for reserving — on offenses together with mayhem and injuring an officer whereas resisting arrest — Brock was requested to provide a press release, throughout which he defined he’s transgender. One jailer requested if he was a woman, he stated, and one other requested to see his genitals earlier than deciding to place him in a girls’s holding cell.
Although his household bailed him out, Brock stated, he misplaced his job when state authorities notified the college of his arrest. County prosecutors initially charged him with two misdemeanors, however dropped the case in August.
Final fall, Beck stated, federal prosecutors reached out, handing over a number of the supplies he hadn’t been capable of get from the Sheriff’s Division and asking to interview Brock. With the brand new supplies, Beck filed a petition asking a court docket to declare his shopper harmless.
Now in graduate college, Brock confirmed as much as the listening to this month flanked by his mom, a number of classmates and a professor. Wearing a black swimsuit and a inexperienced tie, he stood in entrance of a decide as his lawyer defined the case, arguing for a declaration of “factual innocence.” The prosecutor agreed, and the decide entered a tentative ruling finalized final week.
“Although I’m completely happy that I’m factually harmless, I don’t suppose it is going to ever be over for me in my coronary heart,” Brock instructed The Instances. “It’s one thing that I nonetheless take into consideration each single day.”
