The mother of Stanislav Petrov, a man whose beating by police in California was captured on video, says her son has been “criminalized” and “destroyed” by law enforcement officials, who refuse to disclose details about his arrest during an FBI raid last week and new charges against him.

“They destroyed him physically. They destroyed him mentally,” Olga Petrov, 59, said after her son’s hearing on Monday in San Francisco federal court, where charges against the 29-year-old remain sealed and a US judge forced the mother and other members of the public to leave the hearing room.

The closed-door hearing was the latest in a series of stunning developments in the case, which first attracted national attention in November when footage emerged of two Alameda county sheriff’s deputies severely beating Petrov in an alley in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s district attorney, George Gascón, has not said whether he intends to file criminal charges against the deputies, Paul Wieber and Luis Santamaria. Allegations of misconduct, however, dramatically expanded last week when Petrov’s attorney accused the officers of offering Petrov’s belongings to homeless witnesses so they would not speak about what they saw.

Days after the new allegations were made, San Francisco police and the FBI raided a home where Petrov was and arrested him and three others in an incident that allegedly left an individual with multiple gunshot injuries.

Olga Petrov, Stanislav’s mother, speaks to reporters after a federal hearing in San Francisco

Petrov’s distraught mother said on Monday that it seemed clear law enforcement was trying to discredit her son and paint him as a criminal.

“My heart is bleeding to see him in such a condition,” said Olga Petrov, who lives in San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood. “It’s absolutely horrible.”

Olga said her son received tremendous psychological and physical injuries and has been slowly recovering since the November beating. “There’s an absolutely destroyed person struggling … He deserved treatment. He deserved some help,” she said. “Now, it’s very convenient to make him a monster.”

The secrecy around the new charges was particularly troubling to her, she said. “It’s as if we are talking about the enemy of the state … Are we talking about some huge terrorist?”

Just after the beating late last year, police said he was a suspect in a car theft that had led deputies on a lengthy car chase from the East Bay, where the Alameda county sheriff’s office operates, to San Francisco, where he allegedly hit a parked car.

The damage to Petrov’s hands is severe, according to Michael Haddad, his attorney. “He’s been emotionally depressed, because of what happened and because of the fact that he can no longer use his hands productively. He really enjoyed working on cars. He was able to earn money that way, and now he can’t.”

Haddad said on Monday afternoon that he had no information about the FBI raid and sealed charges, but added: “Whatever were to happen to him criminally at this point has nothing to do with the deputies’ liability with the beating on the video. The video speaks for itself. We aim to hold the deputies accountable.”

The sheriff’s office recently disclosed that the two deputies, who are on paid administrative leave, were allowed to alter their original reports after they watched the surveillance footage.

Since she first saw the beating footage, Olga said she, too, has been suffering from psychological distress and post-traumatic stress disorder and regularly has trouble sleeping. “It’s an absolutely horrible feeling in your stomach. I’ve never had such a feeling in my life. I cannot describe it,” she said. “I keep seeing this video nonstop in my head … You can’t get rid of this. It’s forever.”



The US Department of Justice, the FBI in San Francisco and the district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for the Alameda county sheriff’s office said the deputies remain on leave and are waiting for the San Francisco district attorney’s office to decide whether to file charges.