From THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A man whom prosecutors say was tortured while handcuffed by an Orange County sheriff's deputy wants more than $5 million in damages, alleging that the deputy repeatedly used a Taser on him without provocation. Criminal charges were dropped in April against Deputy Christopher Hibbs, 45, of Corona, over the treatment of Ignacio Gomez Lares of Santa Ana after a jury deadlocked on whether Hibbs used excessive force in the Sept. 13, 2007, incident. Prosecutors blamed the mistrial on a "code of silence" among deputies, suggesting other deputies protected Hibbs in their testimony.
Hibbs, though, remains on paid administrative leave pending an internal Sheriff's Department probe.
In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Lares claims that Hibbs stunned him as "corporal punishment/torture" for running away from police officers.
Prosecutors have said the incident began when Hibbs and a deputy trainee spotted Ignacio Gomez Lares, wearing a trench coat and holding a beer bottle, as he walked down Ball Road toward Brookhurst Street, near the border of Stanton and Anaheim, around 2 a.m. Hibbs pulled over the patrol car, and got out and asked to search Lares, prosecutors have said. Lares said no, according to prosecutors, and got into a physical fight with the deputy. Hibbs was knocked to the ground, and Lares ran away.
Lares' lawsuit, filed by Newport Beach attorney Jerry Steering, says two deputies began searching Lares without good cause before Lares ran away. Hibbs caught up to Lares, and then stunned him in the neck with an "X-26" Taser for about 35 seconds, the lawsuit says. Lares claims he was not resisting Hibbs.
"While tasing Lares … defendant Hibbs was screaming at Lares to 'stop resisting'; not because Lares was 'resisting,' but because Hibbs was torturing Lares in public, and wanted to make sure that anyone seeing his torturing of Lares would be under the impression that there was some sort of legitimate reason" for the use of the stun gun, according to the lawsuit.
Hibbs then continued to stun Lares while he was restrained in the patrol car, while screaming at him, according to the claim.
Prosecutors have said Lares carried a loaded firearm in his trench coat.
Lares claims he began experiencing an asthma attack and asked the officers for help – but was ignored, according to the lawsuit.
Besides the county and Hibbs, Lares is suing deputies Trenton Hoffman, Bryan Thomas, James Wicks and Los Angeles police officer Daniel Anderson – who was off-duty at the time of the incident but helped the deputies.
Lares seeks more than $3 million in special and general damages for physical, mental and emotional injuries. He wants another $2 million on the grounds that his constitutional rights were violated.
Ryan Burris, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department, declined to comment on the suit.