- Police Brutality Watch

Three former employees of a North Highlands fast-food restaurant testified in federal court Thursday that they witnessed what they believed was police brutality in the aftermath of a traffic stop by a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy. The trio were called as witnesses on the second day of trial of a civil rights lawsuit by three African American women against the county and three sheriff's deputies. The witnesses were closing and cleaning Der Wienerschnitzel on Watt Avenue and A Street just after midnight May 11, 2002, when Deputy Heather Sullivan stopped Andrea Torres in a nearby parking lot on suspicion of running a light and driving with no rear license plate. Torres accused Sullivan of racial profiling and, before long, Sgt. Gregory Johnson and Deputy David Leon were on the scene, as were Torres' cousin and aunt, Precious Williams and Dianne Campbell. Each side claims the others attacked first, but the situation deteriorated into what one of the restaurant employees likened to a World Wrestling Entertainment event. "I felt that what was going on in front of me just shouldn't be happening," Joshua Rodriguez, then Der Wienerschnitzel night manager, testified Thursday. "It seemed like excessive force. The women did not seem to me to be threatening at all." The women's attorney, Stewart Katz, played for the jury a recording of a call Rodriguez made to 911. "I'm at Wienerschnitzel and there's a bunch of cops out here, and it looks like they are being really rough with two black females," he told the emergency operator. "It looked like I seen two cops giving a couple (punches) to the jaw." "OK. Thank you," the operator responded and ended the call. [more]