Video shows officers let Riverside County Sheriff's K-9 bite suspect while handcuffed

Christopher Damien | Palm Springs Desert Sun

Show Caption Hide Caption Indio man attacked by K9 dog while cuffed Footage from a bystander shows an Indio man attacked by K9 dog while cuffed and being held down by local police officers.

Two Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies and a California Highway Patrol officer said in sworn testimony that an Indio man being arrested for threatening law enforcement on social media was resisting being handcuffed when he was attacked by a sheriff’s K-9, but an exclusive video shows otherwise.

Footage shot by a bystander during the June 2017 incident shows the man was held down by three officers with his hands cuffed behind his back, when an officer guided the K-9 as it repeatedly bit the man’s leg, a discrepancy when compared to the officers’ accounts of what happened.

Robert Garcia, a 22-year-old Indio resident, had recently applied for a job with California Highway Patrol when the agency found that he had posted to his Facebook account photos of firearms he was not legally authorized to own because of a prior offense.

A team from Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and CHP completed a probation check and found firearms in Garcia’s house, which they determined belonged to his brother. Authorities confiscated the guns, enraging Garcia.

According to testimony at Garcia’s preliminary hearing on July 9, Garcia was angry about being barred from owning the guns and posted a threat to law enforcement on his Facebook page soon after the photos were discovered.

“On my life Ima try and take a cop’s life. If I die fuck it. I did it for freedom and for you guys to own firearms and to protect you’s guys family,” Garcia wrote on Facebook, according to court documents.

Believing he might attack attendees at an upcoming CHP recruitment event, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and CHP organized a multi-agency team to arrest Garcia for making the threat.

On June 23, 2017, a team of about 12 officers went to Garcia’s house in Indio. According to testimony, officers called for Garcia to come out of the house.

Garcia came out of his home unarmed, but angry. When he refused to comply with officer’s orders, the K9 handler, Deputy Allert, sicced the dog on Garcia.

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The dog lunged at Garcia – knocking him off-balance and sending them both tumbling to the ground. Deputies say that he wrestled and attempted to hurt the dog. Garcia was apprehended soon thereafter.

Three of the arresting officers testified at the preliminary hearing that Garcia was not listening to their orders, that he was angry, yelling obscenities, and would not remove his hands from his pockets to show that he was unarmed. According to their story, Garcia would not let them handcuff him until after the dog bit him.

CHP Officer John Gette said Garcia was yelling obscenities when Deputy Allert sicced the dog on him.

Roger Tansey, Garcia’s attorney, asked Gette if Garcia’s hands were under his body when he was bitten.

“Yes, they were,” Gette answered.

Deputy Edward James Chacon Jr., of Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, said Garcia was warned that he would be bitten if he did not take his hands out from beneath him.

“Release your arms or you will be bit,” Chacon remembered officers saying. “Never did he give his hands so they could be handcuffed behind his back.”

Riverside Sheriff’s commanding officer during the arrest, Lieutenant Michael Tapp, a sergeant at the time of the incident, said in testimony that the dog bit Garcia while he was wrestling with officers with his hands free.

“Once they gain control of Mr. Robert (Garcia), they get him in cuffs, the dog lets go of the bite,” Tapp said in testimony.

When asked by Tansey during their testimonies, all three officers said Garcia was not handcuffed when he was bitten by the dog.

Video footage provided by Garcia's lawyer, however, shows that Garcia was in custody, with his hands cuffed behind his back, and with several deputies holding him down when the K9 handler guided the leashed dog to bite his right calf repeatedly.

In the graphic video, an officer can be seen at Garcia’s head while another is at his shoulder restraining him as he laid face down with his hands cuffed behind his back. A third officer approaches Garcia’s exposed legs, holding the K9 as it lunges forward. A fourth officer wearing a sheriff’s department flak vest looks on as the dog bites Garcia’s right calf repeatedly.

Garcia told The Desert Sun in a written statement that he was handcuffed and waiting to be put into a patrol vehicle, when the officers brought the K-9 over to him.

“I feel a dog’s muzzle in the back of my right leg. But it’s not biting me. Then the dog starts mauling my leg ... This happen 4 different times. The last time, he pulled it down my leg toward my feet/ankle,” Garcia wrote. “I was screaming in pain because of how much it hurt.”

After the bite, Garcia said, officers didn’t immediately seek medical attention for his wounds.

“In the back of the squad car, Deputy Allert said, ‘let him bleed out for a lil bit before we call EMS,’” Garcia wrote. “‘Just don’t bleed in the car, bleed outside the car, put your legs out.’”

Garcia has been in jail since the incident and is facing nine counts stemming from his threat to law enforcement, owning firearms as a felon, owning metal knuckles, and some large-capacity magazines. He was unarmed when he was attacked and a search confirmed there were no firearms in the house.

“The dog bit him four times,” Tansey said. “The video shows his hands were behind his back and that he was detained when he was attacked. Robert (Garcia) has made mistakes, but this is just wrong.”

"I still have nightmares and feel pain every day for the rest of my life," Garcia wrote. "But I’ll be alright. I’m still alive."

Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol both declined to comment on this story due to agency policies about ongoing litigation.

“This is what people call contempt of cop,” Tansey said. “He angered the cops and this was the payback.”