San Rafael police reports detail bloody arrest in Canal

Two San Rafael police officers involved in a bloody arrest in July said the man they took down tried to put one of them in a “headlock,” and they feared he would seize their weapons despite being too intoxicated to walk steadily, according to police reports obtained by the Independent Journal.

One of the officers, Brandon Nail, reported punching the man in the face during the confrontation, which started because the man was drinking a beer along a street in the Canal area.

The arrest — which left the unarmed man with blood streaming down his face — provoked days of protests by residents and community leaders furious over an example of what they see as overpolicing of the city’s Latino community. It also set off investigations by the city and the district attorney’s office, and prompted the FBI to request evidence from the city.

Both officers have been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the department’s investigation.

The man’s attorney, Charles Dresow, said the officers made false statements in their reports and that video footage of the arrest, captured by the officers’ own body-worn cameras, belies their statements.

“There was no justification for the violence they used against my client,” Dresow said.

The incident happened July 27 on Windward Way, where Officer Daisy Mazariegos approached several men who were drinking beer in the open. Nail arrived a short time later.

Mazariegos told the men to sit on the curb and asked them for identification. One of them stood to get his identification from his pocket. Mazariegos repeatedly told him to remain seated, and when he did not, the officers moved to arrest him.

Body camera footage shows the officers grabbing the man by the arms and, in the course of approximately three seconds, taking him to the ground.

Mazariegos, in a statement to explain the probable cause for the arrest, said the man grabbed Nail “by his head placing him in a headlock.”

According to a more detailed report Mazariegos filed the same day, the “headlock” was the basis for allegations of felony violence against a police officer and felony battery against a police officer.

Mazariegos wrote that she had to tell the man to sit down five times before he finally did, and she “noticed he had an unsteady gait.”

Both officers reported the man “tensed” his body and moved his arms when they reached for him. Both also reported they “feared” the man would try to run or fight them.

The 36-year-old man, according to Mazariegos’ report, is 5 feet tall and 130 pounds.

In the footage from Nail’s camera, the man appears to block his descent with his left hand, but Nail’s camera is so close to the man’s body that the man’s right arm is mostly out of frame during the scuffle. In the footage from Mazariegos’ camera, the man does appear to take hold of Nail’s uniform at the left shoulder.

“On my vest, I have my collapsible baton, oleoresin capsicum spray, and conductive electrical weapon,” Nail wrote in his report. “Fearing that (the man) would gain control of one of the weapons and further his attack, I punched (the man) one time in the face with my right hand.”

By the time the officers cuffed the man and got him standing, his “nose was actively bleeding and the blood ran from his nose down to his chin,” Mazariegos reported.

The Marin County District Attorney’s Office initially filed a felony case against the man, but decided not to pursue it after reviewing footage from the arrest.

Dresow said the officers never should have reached for his client in the first place.

“The force used against my client was excessive and uncalled for,” Dresow said. “There was no reason to grab my client’s arms, there was no reason to leg sweep my client to the ground, no reason to punch him in the face, no reason to grind his face into the asphalt, and no reason to leave him bleeding in a patrol car while the responding officers joked and laughed.”

“Everyone matters or no one matters. My client was treated like he did not matter,” Dresow said. “The physical assault and false police reports are outrageous to both the equal administration of justice and his basic human dignity.”

Officers “may use reasonable force to effect an arrest, to prevent escape or to overcome resistance,” according to the police department’s policy manual. The policy does not specify when officers should take people down or punch them.

The policy mandates that officers alert their supervisors “as soon as practicable” if a person is visibly injured, complains of injury or pain or was struck or kicked, among other conditions.

The city did not released use-of-force reports from this case or supervisors’ reviews of those reports. Assistant City Attorney Genevieve Coyle, in a letter, said those files are exempt from release because they are the “subject of an active administrative investigation.”

Neither Mazariegos nor Nail could be reached for comment. Numbers listed as Mazariegos’ have been disconnected. A number for Nail rang through with no response.

The San Rafael Police Association did not immediately return messages requesting comment.