Sacramento sheriff’s sergeant disciplined for arresting man for being drunk in public in personal storage

After receiving questions from The Sacramento Bee, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Workplace has launched information revealing a sequence of occasions concerning the self-discipline of a sergeant who took down and arrested a person in his personal storage for being drunk in public.

In February 2020, Sheriff’s deputies responded to a name for household disturbance at a home in Antelope, according to a newly released 588-page disciplinary document. Neither the incident nor the disciplinary information associated to the officers concerned have been beforehand publicly out there.

The Sheriff’s Workplace posted the information and video concerning Sgt. Brannon Polete’s self-discipline someday between Oct. 20 and Nov. 17. The Bee first despatched Sheriff’s Workplace spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi an e mail asking why the workplace was violating a state regulation by not releasing disciplinary information on Oct. 20.

Along with this incident, the Sheriff’s Workplace since Oct. 20 additionally posted information concerning at the very least two different incidents. Regardless of the brand new releases, there are nonetheless roughly 100 incidents the place Sacramento Police Division and Sheriff’s Workplace regulation enforcement officers shot or severely injured residents and the companies haven’t launched inner affairs disciplinary information, a Bee investigation revealed earlier this month. That’s an obvious violation of state regulation, SB 1421, which handed in 2019, consultants say.

Gandhi declined remark for this story apart from to say: “The Sheriff’s Workplace will proceed to adjust to the regulation and launch data often, as required.”

Information from the 2020 incident present that when deputies responded to the Antelope dwelling, they put a person behind a deputy automobile whereas a lady retrieved her objects and left the world.

After letting the person out, he entered the storage, yelling on the deputies close to the storage door opening. Polete determined to arrest him for being drunk in public, in keeping with an April 20, 2020, letter from Chet Madison, then a chief deputy.

Information reveal Sheriff’s inner disciplinary course of

An investigation started after the home-owner filed a grievance concerning the incident with the Sheriff’s Workplace and offered his safety digicam footage. Requested in an interview with investigators why Polete arrested the person whereas he was in his personal storage, he stated he believed case regulation confirmed the storage door opening was a “public place.”

“He’s now proving to me that he can’t keep himself at dwelling and that his stage of intoxication was to a level that he wanted to go to jail,” Polete instructed investigators in 2020.

However footage reveals the person didn’t attempt to depart the storage, Madison wrote within the April 20, 2020, letter.

On the recording, Polete will be heard saying phrases reminiscent of “Say you’re f——sorry,” “You’re sorry motherf—–” and “You’re a drunk little f—,” Madison wrote.

“Sgt. Polete’s feedback are outright unsuitable, disparaging, unprofessional, and humiliating,” wrote Madison, who has since taken a job as chief of police for Sacramento State. “It’s unimaginable any member of our group would make an individual who’s being detained say “I’m sorry,” not to mention a Sheriff’s sergeant who’s a primary line supervisor.”

After the person was handcuffed, Polete utilized “stress to the world of left ear,” the letter acknowledged.

“This motion alone served completely no function and hovers close to prison habits,” Madison wrote.

Madison advisable Polete be terminated.

One other unnamed deputy on the decision stated, ‘give me your arms motherf—–,” Madison wrote, then later fist bumped Polete. He unplugged the digicam within the storage, his most “egregious motion,” the letter acknowledged.

Madison advisable that deputy obtain a 20-hour suspension with out pay and be transferred to corrections for 2 years and faraway from an explosive ordinance element. The launched paperwork don’t embody this officers identify or whether or not these suggestions have been adopted.

One other unnamed deputy turned off his belt microphone simply as Polete “started to make atrocious feedback,” Madison wrote. Madison advisable that deputy be terminated. No additional details about this deputy was launched. The alleged actions of the 2 unnamed deputies doesn’t fall beneath a state regulation that requires regulation enforcement companies to launch information as a result of they didn’t contain taking pictures, inflicting critical damage, dishonesty, intercourse assault or discrimination.

How sergeant prevented termination

Polete, a member of the Sheriff’s deputy union, appealed Madison’s advisable termination, and the next month, in Could 2020, a so-called Skelly listening to was held earlier than then-Undersheriff Erik Maness. Polete was represented by the Mastagni Regulation Agency, which regularly represents cops going through self-discipline.

“Polete suggested he could be turning 50 in July and want to be marketable after retirement,” Maness wrote in a memo on Could 8, 2020. “He requested once more for forgiveness and requested a second probability to retire in good standing with the Sheriff’s Workplace.”

Within the memo, Manessstated that he believed Polete’s actions weren’t extreme sufficient to warrant being fired and he ought to as an alternative obtain “a extreme sanction” that confirmed his habits was out of line.

After the listening to, Maness advisable Polete not be fired, however as an alternative serve a 160-hour unpaid suspension, be demoted to a deputy, and transferred to work in one of many county’s two jails for at the very least two years as punishment. Then-Sheriff Scott Jones permitted that self-discipline.

Polete didn’t instantly return a message in search of remark for this story.

Sheriff’s Workplace spokesman Gandhi didn’t reply whether or not Polete continues to be a sheriff’s deputy.