Charles Foster was among three San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies charged with beating and taunting a suspect at the end of a three-hour pursuit through the Mojave Desert, but the only one convicted of a felony in the assault.
A judge, however, set aside the jury verdict and prosecutors then allowed the fired deputy to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. Foster appealed his termination, was reinstated to the department and today works at a sheriff’s detention center in Adelanto.
Jimmie Alfred Walker was working for the Barstow Police Department when, in a drunken rage, he physically assaulted a black man while spouting racial epithets in an off-duty confrontation. Originally charged with battery and a hate crime and fired from the force, Walker took a plea deal and admitted fighting and being drunk in public.
A judge dismissed the misdemeanor convictions less than three months later. Walker then successfully appealed his termination and was reinstated to the Barstow force.
Jorge Eduardo Caamal Jr., a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy from Eastvale, allegedly physically abused his daughter several times over a four-year period. Charged with misdemeanor counts of inflicting corporal injury on a minor, he was allowed to plead guilty to a single count of disturbing the peace.
Caamal is still employed as a full-time deputy.
The criminal prosecution of all three law enforcement officers illustrates a trend uncovered by a six month project undertaken by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, in partnership with the Southern California News Group and other news outlets across the state.
Data uncovered by the project reveals many officers charged with violent offenses over the past 10 years were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges — or have convictions tossed out entirely — allowing them to avoid jail time, continue possessing firearms and, in some cases, remain in law enforcement.
The cases against Foster, Walker and Caamal were uncovered in a review of more than 100 criminal cases filed against law enforcement officers in San Bernardino and Riverside Superior Courts. The three were among about a half-dozen police officers or sheriff’s deputies charged with violent crimes in the past decade who ultimately pleaded their cases down to lesser offenses such as disturbing the peace.
Reluctance to prosecute
Laurie Levenson, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said prosecutors often are reluctant to try police officers in court, and juries often are reluctant to convict them.
“It’s hard for juries to believe that people we give a badge to are also people who committed crimes,” Levenson said, adding that oftentimes victims in such cases are people accused of crimes themselves and not particularly sympathetic to juries.
“It wouldn’t surprise me that (police) were getting particularly favorable deals, because I think prosecutors are often reluctant to prosecute police officers,” she said. “I think that police officers can get a better deal than the average citizen would get facing the same offense.”
Criminal defense attorney Heather N. Phillips, who represented Foster at trial and who specializes in representing public safety officers, firefighters and other public employees in criminal and labor matters, does not believe police charged with violent crimes are treated more leniently. She claims the contrary.
“In my experience, law enforcement officers are held to a much higher standard of conduct than the general public,” Phillips said in an email. “They land on what we call the ‘special interest list’ when they are charged with a crime.”
And that, Phillips said, takes away all of the discretion a prosecuting attorney would otherwise have to resolve the case, simply because of the defendant’s employment in law enforcement.
“That’s not fair. That’s not just,” Phillips said. “If we’re going to treat law enforcement officers equally, then they need to be given the same opportunities to resolve cases that anyone else would be given and ensure that the realistic consequences of such pleading opportunities are similar.”
Following is a closer look at the incidents that grew into criminal cases against the local law enforcement officers:
A chase, a beating and criminal charges
Apple Valley resident Francis Jared Pusok, a convicted felon with a laundry list of prior offenses, led sheriff’s deputies on a three-hour chase — in a car and on foot — through Apple Valley, Victorville and Hesperia on April 9, 2015, before falling from a horse he had stolen while fleeing.
Ten deputies assisted in detaining Pusok, but Deputies Nick Downey, Michael Phelps and Foster were criminally charged for punching or kicking Pusok after he was subdued and no longer considered a threat.
A jury convicted Foster of felony assault by a public officer in March 2017, but deadlocked on the same charge against Downey and Phelps. Both deputies subsequently pleaded no contest to misdemeanor disturbing the peace rather than face a new trial.
Foster’s conviction subsequently was vacated by Superior Court Judge Dwight Moore based, in part, on vague jury instructions he gave and that Moore could not conclude, after repeated viewings of the recorded event, that Foster was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Before a new trial could be scheduled for Foster, his attorney negotiated an 11th-hour agreement allowing Foster to also plead no contest to misdemeanor disturbing the peace.
Foster walked away with probation, appealed his termination and was reinstated as a sheriff’s deputy about a year later. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller confirmed he now works at the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto.
A drunken rage and racial slurs
Witnesses say off-duty Barstow police Walker was intoxicated when he went to visit a friend on Aug. 26, 2010. According to a trial brief filed in Victorville Superior Court, Walker quickly began harassing Lance Miles, a black man who also was visiting mutual friend Audra Ybarra at the home on Fifth Avenue. Walker spouted racial epithets at Miles and instigated a fight with him.
Another witness, in an effort to de-escalate the situation, told Walker to ride with him to the store to buy more beer. That witness later told police Walker was “ranting and raving” about “his hatred toward n—–s” during the trip to the store, according to the trial brief.
When the two arrived back at Ybarra’s home, Walker saw Miles sitting in his car talking to Ybarra. Walker, according to the brief, charged Miles’ vehicle, splashed beer on him and began punching him in the car, according to the court document. He clipped Ybarra as well during the assault.
Ybarra and Miles drove off, calling 911 as they sped away. Walker got in his car and followed them, before losing the two at an In-N-Out restaurant.
Later, the three converged again at the house, and Walker again charged at Miles, who ran inside with Ybarra and locked the door. When the off-duty officer began pounding on the door, Ybarra called 911 a second time, and Walker left, according to the trial brief.
During an interview at the Hesperia sheriff’s station, Walker denied using racial slurs until he was confronted with several of his statements. He then admitted it was “possible” he used a slur. But Walker denied hitting Miles and Ybarra, according to the trial brief.
Walker initially faced misdemeanor hate crime and battery charges, but in March 2014 negotiated a plea agreement with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to fighting in a public place and being drunk in public, both misdemeanors, and was sentenced to probation.
Less than three months after the plea, a judge granted a motion by Walker’s attorney to dismiss the case, court records show. Not only did he win his job back, but in 2015 Walker was reimbursed by the city more than $163,000 in back pay.
Reached by telephone, Walker’s attorney in the 2010 case, Grover Porter, declined to comment.
Barstow police Capt. Andrew Spinoza confirmed that Walker is still an officer with the department, but would not comment on his employment history.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Crane, who prosecuted Walker, said in a telephone interview that his status as a police officer did not factor into his plea agreement, but she would not discuss why he was allowed to plead to lesser crimes, given the multiple witness accounts reflected in her trial brief.
“What I can say is that while a case is pending, things may change … and no matter what, my job is to assess each case individually and reach an appropriate resolution, which I felt was appropriate in that case,” Crane said.
Assault on daughter
An arrest warrant affidavit filed in Riverside Superior Court in February 2016 detailed a disturbing series of alleged assaults on a young girl by her father, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy living in Eastvale.
The affidavit alleged Jorge Eduardo Caamal Jr., in June 2011, grabbed his daughter, who was 12 at the time, and struck her in the face and body. And then in April 2015, according to the affidavit by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, Caamal gave his daughter a black eye. He admitted during police questioning he had slapped his daughter, but downplayed the severity of the incident.
“When shown a photograph of Jane Doe’s injuries, he stated it really wasn’t that bad and that she must have put makeup on her eye to make the injury look worse than it actually was,” the affidavit said.
Six months later, in October 2015, the girl told a teacher at school that her father had hit her again, causing a black eye, swollen lip and a cut ear.
“During an interview with Jorge Caamal, he denied hitting her on this occasion and felt the bruising was just makeup,” the affidavit said.
Caamal was charged with two misdemeanor counts of inflicting corporal injury on a minor. In May 2016, however, he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace — disturbing another person by making a loud and unreasonable noise.
Caamal is still employed as a full-time deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Reached by telephone, Caamal said that, at the time, he was dealing with a contentious divorce, a vindictive wife and a wayward teenage daughter. His daughter slung untrue allegations that he had to fend off.
“My daughter came back and told the truth because she lied about all that. She sent a letter to the D.A. saying she lied about everything, and then she sent a letter to me and apologized for everything,” Caamal said in a telephone interview.
The prosecutor, however, declined to drop the case, concluding that the letter from Caamal’s daughter’s was “just another victim recanting out of guilt,” Caamal said.
“They don’t care about anything other than protecting their conviction record, and they knew with me being a peace officer, there was no way I was going to go to trial and risk my career,” Caamal said, explaining why he took a plea rather than go to trial. “It wasn’t a gamble I was willing to take. They didn’t do me any favors. They screwed me because the case should have been dropped.”
Can slap on the hand be justice?
Legal experts offer varying explanations for why some police officers accused of violent crimes receive nothing more than what some consider a “slap on the hand.”
Crane, the San Bernardino deputy district attorney who prosecuted Walker, said “cops don’t get a break just because they’re cops.”
“It’s not something that is reserved for any particular group of people,” she said.
Criminal defense attorney James McGee, a former San Bernardino County prosecutor, said the standard of proof for police officers charged with violent offenses is different than the general public while they are on duty, and that juries often are reluctant to convict officers of crimes while they were acting “within the confines of their assigned duties.”
For off-duty crimes, McGee does not believe that police officers receive any favorable treatment when it comes to plea bargains. McGee said he has pleaded down many cases to lesser charges, including disturbing the peace, involving civilians charged with violent offenses.
“I have given those resolutions as a prosecutor and obtained similar resolutions as a defense attorney. It happens more with private citizens than one would think. It’s not that uncommon,” McGee said. “The circumstances of events and prior history of the charged individual will always have an effect on the resolution of the case, whether the individual is an officer or civilian.”
Victorville criminal defense attorney Jim Terrell, who often represents clients in civil rights cases against law enforcement, believes the cards are stacked heavily in favor of police officers charged with violent crimes while on or off duty.
Terrell and attorney Sharon Brunner represented Pusok, the man who was beaten by sheriff’s deputies at the end of the three-hour chase.
“Three out of 10 deputies that were captured on video, violently beating Francis Pusok, who was handcuffed and had surrendered, were criminally charged. All received (disturbing the peace),” Terrell said in an email.
Terrell noted that less than two weeks after the incident, San Bernardino County reached out to Pusok and offered him $650,000 to settle the matter. Pusok accepted the settlement.
Phillips, the attorney who defended Foster, said a criminal conviction often carries more severe consequences for a law enforcement officer than a civilian. A domestic battery conviction, for example, carries a mandatory one-year firearm restriction, which would preclude an officer from doing his or her job, Phillips said.
“For the average person, a conviction of this nature means that they are ordered to attend anger management, obey all laws for three years, and pay a fine. Not the end of the world. There is no significant impact on the rest of their life,” Phillips said.
“For a law enforcement officer, however, it means the end of that officer’s career and the destruction of that family’s entire way of life. So the loss of the law enforcement career is a loss of identity, a loss of financial support and a loss of the family’s social circle.”
Staff Writer Brian Rokos contributed to this report.
This story is part of a collaboration of news organizations throughout California coordinated by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and the Bay Area News Group. Reporters participated from more than 30 newsrooms, including MediaNews Group, McClatchy, USA Today Network, Voice of San Diego, and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Click here to read more about the project. Email us at cacriminalcops@gmail.com.
Click here to read all of the articles in this series.
