4 Oakland police officers placed on leave after alleged assault

A police vehicle is parked at 7th Avenue and International Boulevard in the Eastlake neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, May 17, 2014. A police vehicle is parked at 7th Avenue and International Boulevard in the Eastlake neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, May 17, 2014. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 4 Oakland police officers placed on leave after alleged assault 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Four Oakland police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave in connection with a bizarre incident that ended with the arrest of one officer on suspicion of assault, and allegations that the Police Department attempted a coverup.

The case revolves around a Dec. 7 incident involving the alleged victim, Olga Cortez, an Alameda County probation officer, who called 911 to say that two men in their 20s tried to force their way into her home in Oakland’s Redwood Heights neighborhood. Cortez, 42, said she heard loud knocking on the door about 9:30 that night, and that when she and her husband, Nemesio Cortez, opened the door, an apparently intoxicated man tried to push his way in, demanding to speak with the residents of the house.

As the Cortezes confronted the man on their stoop, they noticed a second man emerge from behind their home. Olga Cortez said the second man appeared to be holding a gun beneath his shirt.

The men, according to the Cortez family’s attorney, John Burris, were Oakland police officers who had apparently been out drinking and did not appear to be on duty.

“My children were scared,” said Olga Cortez, who explained during a news conference in which she fought back tears that she and her husband were home that Monday night with their two children getting ready for bed.

The man who appeared to be armed fled down the street, while the other man turned toward Olga Cortez, who by then was standing outside her home in her bathrobe. The man, according to a complaint filed by the family against the city, then tackled Mrs. Cortez “in a bear-hug type hold.” According to the complaint he “squeezed Mrs. Cortez’s scantily clad body close to his, and knocked her on to the concrete in only her short bathrobe, exposing her nude lower body.”

Nemesio Cortez pulled the man off of his wife and pinned him down. The man tried to break free but neighbors heard the commotion and helped Nemesio Cortez hold him down until police arrived.

“When the man learned that police were on their way, he began yelling,” the complaint states. Once police arrived and took him into custody, he began “violently and repeatedly banging his head on the car window.”

Olga Cortez said she was bruised on her arms and right leg.

At the news conference, she recalled the man being “very, very intoxicated.”

“His vocabulary wasn’t straight,” she said.

Few details released

After the incident, the Police Department did not release information about the case, and police officials provided little information after the East Bay Express broke the story this week. The department confirmed that four officers involved in the incident were placed on leave and one, Officer Cullen William Faeth, was arrested that night.

Faeth was arrested on suspicion of assault and public intoxication. Police said that at the time he did not have a gun and was wearing plain clothes.

Police said the criminal investigation is complete, and the case is being reviewed by the Alameda County district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to file charges. The office could not be reached for comment.

An internal affairs investigation within the department is ongoing.

Oakland police spokesman Marco Marquez said Faeth was hired in December 2013 and graduated from the the third transitional academy, which is an eight-week academy for lateral transfers from other jurisdictions.

Burris filed a claim Wednesday against the city of Oakland seeking more than $25,000 in damages and accusing the Police Department and its officers of committing assault, battery, trespassing, infliction of emotional distress, negligence and negligent hiring.

The lawyer said he believes the department tried to cover for the officers. When police arrived at the scene, they never disclosed to Cortez that the man who had tackled her was one of their own officers, Burris said.

“Obviously it was a terrifying event,” Burris said. “The part that’s equally disturbing is the cover-up (and) the sense of protectionism.”

Police return

Olga Cortez said the police came back to her house a few hours after the incident, and again at 3 a.m., asking her to re-enact what happened.

“The whole time, I felt revictimized,” she said. “I felt like they wanted me to change my story. They kept asking, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’”

She said she found out the men were police officers the next day, from an Oakland lieutenant who assured her that the department was conducting internal affairs and criminal investigations and said that everything was going to be OK.

“I called back a month later,” she said. “Still no police report.”

Burris said: “Olga tried to get information about who these officers were. She tried to get reports. She was stonewalled all the way.”

Cortez, who has spent 19 years with the county Probation Department, said she has lost faith in Oakland’s police force.

The incident comes just months after Oakland police were lauded by the head of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, who praised Police Chief Sean Whent for instituting numerous reforms. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has made law enforcement a top priority in her administration, promising to boost the police force to 800 officers by 2017.

“I expect all city employees to conduct themselves with the highest level of professionalism whether they are on or off-duty, in or out of uniform,” Schaaf said in a statement. “So I take this allegation of misconduct extremely seriously. As Mayor, it’s my job to ensure that the investigations are thorough and fair, and that the process yields a complete resolution that we can all be confident in.”

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Kimberly Veklerov contributed to this report.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com.