- Police Brutality Watch

18 Year Old Gerald Bernales has Permanent Brain damage
Received a $2 million settlement in 2003

The federal Justice Department won't pursue criminal charges against the sheriff's deputies who arrested Gerald Bernales in February 2001, finding they did not violate his civil rights when they used force while taking him into custody at what was then his home in Los Osos. The Sheriff's Department was told of the agency's conclusion in a letter dated Nov. 30. That correspondence was received in the last few weeks. It came more than 16 months after Sheriff Pat Hedges requested that the FBI review the Bernales case to determine whether deputies acted properly. "This was a truly independent investigation that supports what I've been saying, and the deputies have been saying, since the inception," Hedges said. Bernales received a $2 million settlement in 2003 after claiming that the arrest left him with permanent brain damage. Basile said he was not surprised by the results of the review because the alleged civil rights violations must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Early in the morning of the day he was arrested, the then 18-year-old Bernales failed to yield to a traffic stop by deputies Robert Burgeson and David Goodwin. They reportedly observed him driving 10 mph over the 35-mph speed limit along Los Osos Valley Road. Video shot from the deputies' patrol car shows Bernales' vehicle slowing down along the road's shoulder, then re-entering the road and gaining speed. [more]