Boudin Refiles Two Charges against Alameda Sheriff Officers, Declines on Other Cop Violence Cases

By Paige Laver

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced Thursday he will be refilling charges against two Alameda County Sheriff’s officers, Deputies Luis Santamaria and Paul Wieber, who allegedly engaged in police brutality.

The SF District Attorney’s Office also announced declining to file charges in two incidents, according to the office’s Independent Investigations Bureau (IIB), which completed the investigations.

District Attorney Boudin said he attempts to make charging decisions as soon as possible when it involves alleged police brutality.

Boudin refiled the charges as felonies, including charges of assault by a public officer, battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, as well as numerous enhancements for bodily injury and use of a weapon.

This will be the fourth case where the DA is prosecuting law enforcement officers for excessive force to ensure accountability of deputies’ clear abuse of power.

The beating by the officers occurred in November of 2015, in the Mission District Alley, after a high-speed chase of a suspect believed to be driving a stolen vehicle he allegedly crashed into two police officer cars.

Rather than arresting the suspect, the officers are accused of beating him with their fists and batons, despite the fact that he surrendered.

This event was captured on the deputies’ surveillance cameras, which showed the officers hit the victim over 30 times to his head, hands, body, and legs.

The officers also took the victim’s golden chain necklace and bribed the homeless person who witnessed the scene to not discuss the event.

The injuries to the victim included severe lacerations to the head and numerous broken bones.

Now former Deputies Luis Santamaria and Paul Wieber were set to face trial in March 2020, but an expert witness was seeking medical treatment, and the judge denied the request to delay the trial, which led DA Boudin to make the decision to drop the charges for the time being, and refile them later.

The prosecution made it possible to refile the charges for a felony case by claiming first dismissal.

The District Attorney Office released the following statement from DA Boudin:

“My office has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to police accountability when officers break the law and, at the same time, we also work to quickly exonerate officers who behaved lawfully. We have remained committed to prosecuting the case against the Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, as it is an egregious example of police brutality. We continue to pursue accountability for these deputies for the unjustified and unconscionable beating of an unarmed man.”

At the same time, DA Boudin announced he will not be filing charges in the police tasering of Antonio Estrada.

In November of 2020, police claimed that a 26-year-old man, who was living in an apartment in the tenderloin district of San Francisco, allegedly set fire to his apartment and wielded a kitchen knife and frying pan in a fight with numerous men on Market Street. There were bystanders on the scene that showed Estrada wielding the weapons and refusing to drop the knife.

This resulted in the San Francisco police deploying the first Taser. and when Estrada did not drop the knife, another officer deployed another Taser and Estrada did drop the knife. The officers and Estrada were outside of Westfield Mall when he got shot by the Taser.

Estrada survived with life threatening injuries and has been arrested on suspicion of various charges including assault, arson, and resisting arrest, as reported by the SFPD.

Internal Affairs investigated the event, interviewed the officers involved, reviewed the body worn body footage, the bystanders video, and concluded the officers did not break the law.

In another case, the DA is not filing in a second-look examination of the Amilcar Perez-Lopez killing, which Boudin gave to the IIB unit that is re-examining specific fatal cases where previous administrations and politicians have declined to file charges.

After the second-look examination, IIB came to the conclusion that there was no legal basis or evidence to support filing charges.

“Our hearts break for the family of Mr. Perez-Lopez and we know how painful it must be for them to have lost their family member at the hands of police,” said Lateef Gray, the Managing Attorney of IIB.

“We hope they take comfort in knowing that we conducted a careful, second review of the case to ensure that we are making the only decision supported by the law. We continue to express our sympathy and condolences to them.”