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 crushed 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 yr, and to place it behind him Brock needed a choose to declare him harmless. His lawyer had filed the paperwork, and now Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Decide Evan Kitahara was going to determine on the request.
Twenty minutes after coming 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 coated them up.
“I can lastly exhale,” Brock informed The Occasions after studying of the choose’s determination. “It felt like I’d been holding my breath for over a yr.”
Even when the brand new developments convey some peace of thoughts for the Whittier man, they may sign bother for the deputy who arrested him. When Deputy Joseph Benza made the February 2023 arrest, he signed a declaration below penalty of perjury saying Brock had bitten him.
At this month’s listening to, Kitahara decided there was “no proof” of that.
Benza is “prone to being decertified,” stated Brock’s legal professional, Thomas Beck, suggesting the deputy might lose his California peace officer certification for alleged dishonesty and be banned from working in regulation enforcement. “And on the use-of-force concern, he could possibly be prosecuted.”
Based on paperwork Beck filed in courtroom, the FBI has been trying into the case since final yr. The Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace confirmed to The Occasions this week that native prosecutors are reviewing the matter as nicely.
Lawyer Tom Yu, who’s representing Benza, has maintained for months that his consumer didn’t do something fallacious. And information present a Sheriff’s Division assessment final yr cleared the deputy’s use of power.
“I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Beck’s illustration of what occurred,” Yu wrote to The Occasions in an e-mail. “I’m assured that the federal choose will throw the entire 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 below assessment.
“Our prime precedence is the protection of everybody concerned in any encounter,” the assertion stated.
On the morning of Feb. 10, 2023, Brock had simply left work at Frontier Excessive College when he noticed a deputy who seemed to be berating a lady on the aspect of the street. As he drove by, Brock casually threw up his center finger, pondering the deputy wouldn’t see it.
Emmett Brock was driving residence from his job as a instructor when he was stopped and crushed by a deputy outdoors of a 7-Eleven.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Occasions)
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 known as 911 and requested what to do.
“If he hasn’t pulled you over, he hasn’t pulled you over,” the dispatcher stated, based on a recording of the decision shared with The Occasions.
However a couple of minutes later, Brock pulled right into a 7-Eleven car 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, based on 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,” based on 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 larger 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 have been damaged however, based on the lawsuit, the deputy nonetheless hadn’t defined why he’d stopped him.
When a sergeant arrived on scene, Brock informed him he’d been crushed in retaliation for giving a deputy the finger — an act that might have been a violation of the division’s coverage explicitly banning using power 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, based on the lawsuit. When paramedics arrived, the swimsuit says, he didn’t inform them something a couple of chew, both.
Earlier than leaving to return to the station, Benza and a number of other sergeants walked into the 7-Eleven, based on a 32-page innocence petition Beck filed in courtroom on Brock’s behalf. The lawmen went into the shop’s digital camera room and stayed there for somewhat 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 chew marks.”
After he left pressing care, Benza filed his declaration below 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 overlooked any point out of stopping a lady on the aspect of the street and stated nothing about Brock giving him the finger.
In an interview with The Occasions final yr, Benza’s legal professional stated that’s as a result of the particular person Brock handed on the aspect of the street wasn’t his consumer, 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 mobile phone GPS information and was in a position to 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 informed The Occasions this week that it doesn’t verify 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 present a press release, throughout which he defined he’s transgender. One jailer requested if he was a lady, he stated, and one other requested to see his genitals earlier than deciding to place him in a ladies’s holding cell.
Although his household bailed him out, Brock stated, he misplaced his job when state authorities notified the varsity 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 among the supplies he hadn’t been in a position to get from the Sheriff’s Division and asking to interview Brock. With the brand new supplies, Beck filed a petition asking a courtroom to declare his consumer 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 choose as his lawyer defined the case, arguing for a declaration of “factual innocence.” The prosecutor agreed, and the choose entered a tentative ruling finalized final week.
“Although I’m comfortable that I’m factually harmless, I don’t suppose it’s going to ever be over for me in my coronary heart,” Brock informed The Occasions. “It’s one thing that I nonetheless take into consideration each single day.”
