Body-cam footage shows Palmdale sheriff’s deputy punching a woman holding her baby

VIDEO | 01:41

Body-cam footage shows Palmdale sheriff deputy punching a woman holding her baby

Weeks after sheriff’s deputies were filmed assaulting a woman in front of a Lancaster WinCo, the Sheriff’s Department released footage of a deputy in Palmdale punching a woman carrying her baby after a traffic stop.

By Keri Blakinger

and James Queally

July 12, 2023 8:37 PM PT

During what should have been a routine traffic stop last year, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy from the Palmdale station punched a mother in the face while she held her 3-week-old baby in her arms, begging authorities not to take her child.

An agonizing video of the incident released Wednesday night shows the woman protesting and pleading for several minutes before a male deputy at the edge of the frame throws two overhand punches at her head.

Though the traffic stop and outburst of violence occurred in July 2022, under the prior sheriff’s administration, it came to light this week after Sheriff Robert Luna called a news conference to release body-camera footage and announce his decision to turn the case over to the FBI for further investigation and to local prosecutors for consideration of criminal charges.

“I found the punching of the woman and the circumstances completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that he “took swift action,” relieving the deputy of duty after finding out about the incident a few days ago.

Other elected officials were quick to respond to Wednesday’s news conference. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger called the video “gut-wrenching,” but commended Luna for bringing it to light. Supervisor Janice Hahn called for the deputy to be fired, describing the video as “appalling” and saying there was no “no justification” for the violence.

“This deputy does not belong in our Sheriff’s Department,” she said.

In addition to calling the incident “enraging and disturbing,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass raised concerns about deputies’ decision to take the women’s children in the first place.

“The idea that you would assault a mother with a child in her arms and then subject that child to the child welfare system just because the child didn’t have a car seat is an abuse of power,” she said.

Richard Pippin, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, framed it differently. In an emailed statement he said that the infants’ safety was “clearly our deputies’ highest priority” as the footage showed authorities talking with the women for several minutes before the violence. He added that “some will no doubt say that things could have been done differently.”

The video’s release comes days after the disclosure of another video, also showing a violent encounter between a woman and a sheriff’s deputy, in the Antelope Valley, an area that has long had a fraught relationship with the Sheriff’s Department.

According to Luna, the latest incident stemmed from a traffic stop just before midnight on July 13 last year, when deputies from the Palmdale station spotted a vehicle driving at night without the headlights on. When they pulled over the driver, the deputies allegedly noticed the smell of alcohol coming from inside and spotted four women, three of whom were holding babies in their arms instead of using car seats.

The deputies arrested the female passengers on suspicion of felony child endangerment. They arrested the male driver on suspicion of felony child endangerment, as well as driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

But in the course of those arrests, deputies used force on two of the women — including the one shown in the video released Wednesday.

The bulk of the eight-minute video — time-stampped just after midnight — shows a tense conversation between a group of deputies and a woman clutching her baby, seated cross-legged on the ground. The deputies can be heard saying that the woman was riding in a car driven by someone without a valid license and that her baby was not in a car seat.

Repeatedly, the deputies ask the woman to give up the child so she can be placed under arrest, warning that her infant will be pulled away otherwise.

“Forcefully taking your child from you is not what’s best,” one deputy says.

“Taking my child from me is not what’s best,” the woman replies.

After several minutes of back-and-forth, the deputies pry the woman’s hands apart and she begins screaming as the child is removed from her arms.

Nearby, another woman holding a baby begins screaming and cursing at officers. When deputies announce they plan to arrest her too, she grows irate.

“Y’all gonna have to shoot me dead to take my baby from my arms,” she says, before a struggle ensues.

As the woman is being held by her wrists and arms by at least two deputies, a third male deputy can be seen throwing two punches at the woman’s head while she is still holding her baby. It is unclear if the punches connect, but the woman howls in pain.

Though parts of the exchange are from angles that make it difficult to see exactly what occurs, Luna said that all of the deputies on scene were wearing body cameras and that the department was “being courteous” in editing it down. “We’re not trying to send you hours of footage,” he said.

Though Luna said the incident was referred to internal affairs when it occurred, he learned of it only last weekend when a chief in the department brought it to his attention, he said.

“I cannot speak to what my predecessor did or did not do,” Luna said Wednesday. “The action I am describing to you today is action that I took in the last couple of days.”

However, what exactly Luna’s response entailed was unclear. He said state law barred him from disclosing the disciplinary actions he had taken.

In an emailed statement Wednesday night, the former sheriff, Alex Villanueva, called Luna’s statements “extremely disingenuous” and said he hadn’t taken action to terminate the deputy before leaving office because the investigation into the matter had not concluded.

“Furthermore, the only reason action was taken today was because the statute of limitation was about to expire tomorrow, July 14,” Villanueva said. “His presser deliberately excluded all footage that showed the struggle to remove the infants from the custody of the suspects who endangered their lives, and the context of the deputy’s decision to use force. That very context will most likely preclude any criminal proceedings that would lead to a conviction, so this is nothing more than political posturing.”

The only reason the incident was caught on video at all, Villanueva said, was because of his own efforts to implement a body-worn camera system in the Sheriff’s Department.

The video’s release comes as the department is still facing criticism for a separate violent encounter with a deputy from the nearby Lancaster station.

The earlier incident took place on June 24, when deputies responded to 911 calls for a reported robbery in progress at a WinCo Foods grocery store on Avenue K in Lancaster. After arriving on scene, they encountered a man and a woman who allegedly matched the description of the suspects given to 911.

As the deputies handcuffed the man in the parking lot, the woman began filming with her phone. Within seconds, one of the deputies rushed toward her and reached for her arm, seemingly in an attempt to take the phone.

“You can’t touch me,” she screamed. He threw her on the ground, repeatedly ordering her to stop. Footage showed the deputy arguing with the woman, threatening to punch her in the face at one point. He then pepper-sprayed her in the face and handcuffed her.

“All you had to do was listen,” he said afterward.

“I didn’t do anything,” she replied, as she writhed on the ground and moaned.

The man was ultimately cited on suspicion of resisting an officer, attempted petty theft and interfering with a business, while the woman was hospitalized because of the pepper spray and abrasions to her arm. She was released and cited on suspicion of assaulting an officer, as well as battery after assaulting loss prevention personnel.

Later at a news conference, Luna called the incident “disturbing” but declined to name the deputies involved. Both have been removed from field duty, he said, adding that the department’s internal investigation to determine whether it was a reasonable use of force is still underway. Lancaster station Capt. John Lecrivain was also transferred out of the area in the wake of the incident, the department confirmed to The Times on Tuesday.

“Is it a training issue? Absolutely could be,” Luna said. “Is it misconduct that could lead to discipline — from lower levels of discipline all the way to dismissal? That’s all on the table.”

He said the investigation would take into account the events leading up to the incident, including the deputies’ stress and workloads.

“At the end of the day, we’re short-handed at a lot of our patrol stations, if not all of them,” he said. “Out in the Antelope Valley, it’s one of the busiest stations we have in the entire county.”

In a Facebook post published on Tuesday, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris described the WinCo incident as “probably excessive force,” though he cautioned residents against passing judgment on the matter until an investigation was complete. He also blasted Luna’s decision to transfer Lecrivain and contended the deputy involved should not lose his job.

The Sheriff’s Department has long had a troubled relationship with Antelope Valley residents, particularly Black and Latino communities. A federal investigation in 2013 found a pattern of unreasonable force, intimidation, and unlawful stops and searches of Black and Latino residents in Lancaster. Two years later, the Sheriff’s Department agreed to implement sweeping measures to improve policing there, but as of 2021 monitors said that progress had been slow.

Two years ago, a 16-year-old Black student at Lancaster High School sued the department and her school district, alleging she was slammed to the ground by a deputy at school after refusing to give him her phone. A bystander recorded the incident in a 43-second video that showed the deputy knocking her to the ground and pinning her face down, then straddling her for more than 30 seconds while she yelled.

The department also faced allegations of citing and arresting Black and Latino high school students in Lancaster and Palmdale at a disproportionate rate in recent years after an LAist/ProPublica investigation and a subsequent review by the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General.

At the time, Lecrivain described the report as an “entertaining piece of fiction.”