Two East Palo Alto police officers and a teen volunteer with the
department were arraigned in San Mateo County Superior Court this
morning on charges relating to the allegedly unprovoked off-duty
beating of a suspected drug dealer in August. The men's arrest follows
a two-month investigation by the San Mateo County District Attorney's
Office into the incident, which left the victim bleeding and
unconscious on a dark street in East Palo Alto. A grand jury handed up
an indictment against the three men Wednesday, after three days of
secret testimony presented by prosecutors. Officers Edward Arthur
Rivers Jr. and Johnny Taflinger Jr. and police Explorer Eddi Tapia
Torres were formally charged with felony assault on a citizen under
color of authority, felony assault with force likely to cause great
bodily injury and misdemeanor battery. According to sources familiar
with the investigation, late on Aug. 21 or early Aug. 22 the two
officers and the scout were sitting in a car outside a 7-Eleven on West
Bayshore Road in East Palo Alto, where they had gone to buy beer. The
off-duty officers were not in uniform. About midnight, the officers and the
scout noticed a man they thought to be dealing drugs. The youth told
investigators that the officers called the alleged dealer over to the
car. They asked him if he would sell them some ``dope,'' but when he
began to hand it to them, one of the officers allegedly tried to knock
it out of his hand, and the man ran. The men allegedly chased him down
and beat him with their hands and feet, according to the dealer. [more] and [more]
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