According to a release from the West Sacramento Police Department, Officer Sergio Alvarez, while on duty, used his position to stop and assault women – six in total, some of them more than once, who range in age from 20 to 47.
All of them frequented the West Capitol Avenue area, where Mr. Alvarez had a home and allegedly was housing prostitutes.
He had been an officer with the West Sacramento Police Department since 2007 when on September 24, 2012, police learned of his alleged criminal conduct.
An investigation commenced and Mr. Alvarez was placed on administrative leave.
According to the release, the first assault occurred in October, 2011, and the final incident took place just before September 24, 2012. A woman told another patrol officer that she had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Alvarez.
The West Sacramento police chief said that Mr. Alvarez was placed on leave and, in the course of their investigation, they found five additional victims.
The assaults occurred both inside and outside of Mr. Alvarez’s patrol car and, in some cases, the victims were taken to another location.
Mr. Alvarez has now received his termination papers from the West Sacramento Police Department. He is currently at Yolo County Jail, taken into custody by both the West Sacramento and Sacramento Police Departments.
An investigation was subsequently forwarded to the Yolo County District Attorney’s office. A county grand jury was convened last weekend and handed down an indictment.
“The victimization of vulnerable people is despicable, but the fact that these crimes were apparently committed by a police officer under the color of authority is reprehensible,” said West Sacramento Police Chief Dan Drummond, at a press conference called for 7 pm on Monday evening.
The chief defended his department, as well: “The actions of one person should in no way reflect upon the outstanding performance and integrity of the men and women of the Department. I am proud of the way our officers carried out their duties in this investigation and every day in the protection of the community,”
“I’m personally just appalled and sick that someone who was put in a position of trust would violate that trust in such a despicable an egregious manner,” Chief Drummond added.
According to the department, Mr. Alvarez grew up in West Sacramento, attending River City High School. He is married with three kids.
He faces 35 charges including rape, oral copulation, sodomy and kidnapping. Bail is set at $26.3 million. Police believe there could be additional victims.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Just another example of a minority being victimized by Reisig and overcharging. It’s not save to be a minority in Yolo County. He’s probably only being charged with so many crimes because Reisig gets more grant money per charge. Hopefully The Vanguards coverage of this case will finally out Reisig and his “Cash for Convictions” scheme. When will the The Vanguard start campaigning to have the bail lowered?
Mr. Obvious
Did you have a point with your 7:22 comment ? If so, I totally missed it .
I detect sarcasm in Mr Obvious’ comment.
“Cash for Convictions” has lost any worthwhile meaning in the Vanguard. I’d suggest that Mr. Obvious knows that there’s not much grant money out there to combat “rape, oral copulation, sodomy, and kidnapping.”
This case is worse than your typical overcharged minority, however, because of the public trust issues involved. Still, a $26.2-million bail seems out of line; I’ll join Mr. Obvious in calling for the Vanguard to campaign for reasonable bail.
Mr. O’s point is OBVIOUS.
Even one wrongful conviction is one too many. Nothing in this article makes me change my mind.
I don’t understand Mr. O’s point, Rusty. We have a press release from the investigating agency, there has been no trial, we have had no statement from the defense, we know very little at this point.
Based on the body of work I have seen from the West Sacramento PD, I certainly would make no presumptions about the guilt or innocence.
To my recollection, I don’t recall arguing for the reduction of bail in case.
David, do you know if the administrative leave was paid or unpaid? Typically it is paid, right? Well with the fiscal crisis still looming, why would that department consent to give him five months of paid leave? Anytime an officer is investigated, they automatically get paid time off. Shoot and kill someone? No problem, a week off with pay. Drunk driving or get drunk and shoot your own dog? No problem, a month off with pay. Maybe That should be something that the Vanguard looks into.
As for Mr O’s statement, the DA has a history of putting a ridiculous amount of charges on people especially in the area of sexual assaults. He does get extra money for each charge, it looks good on paper! He can fill out a grant application and state as many charges as he wants not necessarily how many defendents. Furthermore, I know of at least one case where someone sat in jail for a year with a high bail and then one charge was dropped and the other was acquitted. Does that seem fair? If he has the evidence to convict is one thing but obviously if he is dropping charges the day before trial or the jury hands down and acquittal it’s time for a change!
“…the DA has a history of putting a ridiculous amount of charges on people especially in the area of sexual assaults. He does get extra money for each charge….”
David, is this an accurate “cash for convictions” example? Tecnichick, please provide source for this claim.
You need to read some of the grant applications and requirements to truly understand how “cash for convictions” can be a problem. Below is the first requirement from the Violence Against Womens’ Vertical Prosecution Grant. Yolo County has been a recipient of this grant for many years.
Page 5
REQUIRED POLICIES
The recipients shall adopt and pursue the following policies:
•All reasonable prosecutorial efforts will be made to resist pre-trial release of a charged defendant;
That requirement does not allow the DA’s office to let a case go if the defendant has been charged so a thorough investigation is needed but unfortunately not always done.
The requirements for meeting certain numbers of prosecutions are also part of the application process.
Page 7 Goals and Objectives
Provide a quantitative response to each objective. In narrative form, detail the activities to show how each objective will be met. Cal EMA requires each recipient to submit the mandatory objectives and up to five additional objectives.
1. During the grant year the project will vertically prosecute ________ number of cases. Please breakdown how many cases per type of crime.
In a narrative form, please detail how this objective will be met.
2. Please provide the percentage of cases vertically prosecuted:
_____% will be prosecuted using True Vertical Prosecution;
_____% will be prosecuted using Major Stage Vertical Prosecution; and,
_____% will be prosecuted using Unit Vertical Prosecution.
This grant money covers a prosecutor, an investigator and/or a victim advocate salary and benefits. There is an incentive to keep this money coming in so that people remain employed.
Again, I think grants are important and needed, There are many good things that are proposed in this grant and others like it. Quotas for convictions, arrests, and prosecutions should not play into whether you get the money or not.
This info is from: http://rimsinland.oes.ca.gov/WebPage/oeswebsite.nsf/OESLevsPDF/2011 Violence Against Women Vertical Prosecution Program (VV)/$file/VV11 RFA.pdf
There are many other grants like this that are utilized by this county DA’s office. Please read them before making statements that there is no such things as “cash for convictions.” Sometimes the policies set by these grants have consequences that were never intended by those who designed the grant.
In applying for grants you have to produce a number of what you will accomplish by being awarded the grant, in other words, you must quanitfy your convictions. Is the DA a fortune teller? Can he forsee the future? Does he even know how many arrests there will be in a quarter? No, therefore he must really stretch them when he gets them
Here is a reference for you: http://davisvanguard.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3817:more-cash-for-convictions&catid=74:court-watch&Itemid=100
What if five charges brought this man a life sentence? What other point would there be in pursuing 37 charges? The answer is not “Justice” the answer is money.
When you read the grant reports that have to be submitted quarterly and annually, you will see that arrests, prosecutions and conviction numbers must be reported.
“David, is this an accurate “cash for convictions” example?”
We know next to nothing about this case. The two classic “cash for convictions” type cases are the ones in which a marginal case is prosecuted because there is a financial stake. The other is the one where there are a ton of charges in the hopes that it will persuade the defendant to take a plea to wrack up a conviction on a marginal case where the defendant faced huge jeopardy rolling the jury dice.
We don’t know enough about this case to make any kind of guess as of yet.
[quote]“…the DA has a history of putting a ridiculous amount of charges on people especially in the area of sexual assaults. He does get extra money for each charge….”[/quote] Sorry that my question was not clear.
David, this [u]statement[/u] an accurate “cash for convictions” example?
Tecnichick, please provide source for your claim that the DA “gets extra money for each (sexual assault) charge.”
I think the poster is correct that the DA has a history of piling charges to a ridiculous level of sexual assaults. I don’t believe he gets extra per charge – per conviction, yes. I don’t know if that’s a typo or an error.
[quote]“The other (classic ‘cash for convictions’ case) is the one where there are a ton of charges in the hopes that it will persuade the defendant to take a plea to wrack up a conviction on a marginal case where the defendant faced huge jeopardy rolling the jury dice.”[/quote]This is [u]not[/u] describing a “cash for convictions” situation at all, but another issue of piling on charges.
“Cash for Convictions” as a slogan must go to the [u]motives[/u] for arresting and prosecuting. But, maybe the distinction isn’t worth arguing over.
And, FIA, trying to keep the slogan from being applied willy-nilly whenever someone thinks someone is overcharged or a weak case is pursued doesn’t mean that I’ve ever said, “there’s no such thing as ‘cash for convictions’.”
In fact, just labeling an investigation or prosecution “cash for convictions” doesn’t mean the DA has made an inappropriate pursuit, as both you and David have suggested before.
It’s the use of inappropriate or illegal techniques in pursuing the cash that brings injustice. PS–Thanks for the grant example.
Fight Against Injustice: thanks for the info. A friend of mine was held with no bail until his attorney received strange info, a day later, that it was all just a clerical error and they should have allowed bail….hmmm… after reading your post, I wonder if it was really a clerical error. Thank God my friend was not physically harmed while awaiting bail. Psychological harm is another subject for another day.
“The other is the one where there are a ton of charges in the hopes that it will persuade the defendant to take a plea to wrack up a conviction on a marginal case where the defendant faced huge jeopardy rolling the jury dice.”
Your words succinctly describe what happened to my friend several years ago. Thank you very much.
Technichick, I think the CCPOA – the police officer’s union, has legal contracts in place regarding paid leave & the circumstances surrounding it. It may be a subject for the Vanguard but it involves collective bargaining.
P.S. I personally believe there are times when an officer must shoot a very dangerous person, in the line of duty. Then he/she should be allowed paid leave.
Wow, even if only half of the charges hold-up; this ex-cop is a seriously depraved and degenerate serial-criminal; the kind that needs to be locked up and throw away the key.
Seems like an independent organization (the feds?) should investigate the PD–how could such a level of criminal activity occur; and no one else in the department get a hint of this activity? Did he have a patrol partner? Maybe the police personnel just didn’t give enough attention to hints until it became too pervasive for them to ignore; I guess the internal investigation to gather evidence must have taken some time, too.
“The assaults occurred both inside and outside of Mr. Alvarez’s patrol car and, in some cases, the victims were taken to another location.”
I would add the word “alleged” to describe “assaults”.
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jmt: He hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. We should let the jury do their job. Anyone can accuse anyone of anything.
Jimmy’s daughter–that’s why I prefaced my comment with “even if only half of the charges hold-up”
Point: Let us put ourselves in the shoes of Jane Doe #8 &/or #9, #10 (of 10 victims) & the DA’s office takes the posture to NOT file x number of charges or enhancements,in a weak attempt to satisfy to very small number of Davis residents…
How might THAT make y’all feel?
Nuff said!
Point: Let us put ourselves in the shoes of Jane Doe #8 &/or #9, #10 (of 10 victims) & the DA’s office takes the posture to NOT file x number of charges or enhancements,in a weak attempt to satisfy to very small number of Davis residents…
How might THAT make y’all feel?
Nuff said!
Let us not forget – In CA, IMHO, victims have rights too….see CA Constitution for further
I have not forgotten that victims have rights, too. I proudly call myself s feminist. And of course if there are 10 victims, 10 charges should be brought.