The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office is expected to announce Wednesday morning whether it will —or will not — criminally charge the San Jose police officers whose secretly-taped and violent arrest of an unarmed Vietnamese college student last year touched off community concern over excessive force.
The widely-anticipated decision comes about a week after all criminal charges were dropped against 21-year-old Phuong Ho, who was struck repeatedly with a metal baton and stunned with a Taser gun.
But no one from the prosecutor’s office would confirm Tuesday what decision had been made about the officers.
“It’s a case of intense community interest,” said District Attorney spokesman Nick Muyo.
Some members of the community — including local leaders of the Asian-Americans for Community Involvement and the ACLU — were invited to meet with Carr before the press conference. Some expressed concern Tuesday that they would somehow be used to endorse her decision.
Whatever it is, Carr’s decision will bring to a legal end the controversial criminal investigation which began with the disclosure of a secretly recorded video of the violent arrest. That video became a touch point for those who have sharply questioned whether San Jose police use excessive force during some low-level arrests. And the grainy, two-minute video added to tension between some in the Asian community and police, already frayed over the police shooting of a knife wielding, violent and mentally-ill Vietnamese man earlier in the year.
“I’m hopeful the DA will decide that charges will be filed against the officers who beat up Phuong Ho,” said Richard Konda, head of the Asian Law Alliance, one of the community leaders invited to meet with Carr. “From what we could see they crossed the line and they should be prosecuted for their criminal conduct.”
After Carr’s decision is rendered any question of punishment becomes administrative and civil. The case first goes to San Jose police internal affairs investigators and to then Police Chief Rob Davis, who must decide if the officers acted within police policy. And if they did not, he must decide what punishment to levy — from training to termination.
Davis has repeatedly said that his officers should be using the “lowest amount of force” necessary to affect an arrest. Some law enforcement experts who viewed the video said the officers’ force appeared excessive.
The controversial case began Sept. 3 when police responded to a disturbance call that stemmed from a dispute that Ho was having with a roommate. At one point, Ho, a math major from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, picked up a knife and obliquely threatened his roommate for having spilled soap on Ho’s dinner steak.
Ho was in his room and did not have the knife when Officers Kenneth Siegel and Steven Payne Jr. arrived. As he tried to follow Siegel into his bedroom, Ho was knocked to the ground in the hallway when he disobeyed the police order not to follow them, their reports show. Then, another roommate began taking a cell phone video of the incident, as Siegel repeatedly struck Ho with a baton, and Payne shocked him with a Taser gun. Two other officers were on the scene, but reportedly did not use force.
The roommate later sold the video to Ho’s lawyers. The Mercury News posted the video on its site after showing it to police commanders, who immediately launched a criminal investigation. All four officers were placed on administrative leave.
Contact Sean Webby at 408-920-5003.