An Orange County Sheriff’s Department dashcam video shows a deputy repeatedly punching a motorist in the face while arresting him for misdemeanor public intoxication this year, an action the man’s attorney calls excessive force.
Mohamed Sayem is facing a felony resisting arrest charge over a confrontation with Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies Michael Devitt and Eric Ota that turned violent in the early hours of Aug. 19. He has pleaded not guilty, according to court records.
Devitt claimed in an incident report and in an interview with his supervisor following the scuffle that Sayem assaulted him after the deputies found him intoxicated in his Jeep in a Stanton parking lot. Devitt’s accounts of the incident are contradicted by footage recorded on police dashboard cameras, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders alleged in a motion seeking the deputies’ personnel files.
A statement Thursday from the Sheriff’s Department said “a review of the full video indicates that the deputy made every attempt to deescalate the situation and provide the subject multiple opportunities to simply provide his identification. The subject refused to do so and attempted to physically engage the deputy, during which the deputy used force appropriate for the situation.”
Read the full story at LATimes.com.
