A Fresno federal jury found for the defendants in finding that officers' arrest of a man for being drunk in public after a 2005 concert at Selland Arena was justified. Fresno Bee
The circumstances leading up to the arrest, and a situation that quickly deteriorated into a series of racial slurs uttered by the man, David Amezcua, were hotly debated points in a three-day trial in U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger's courtroom.
Amezcua, who is a corrections officer, had sued officer Bryan Williams, Fresno and its police department, alleging his civil rights were violated for "without justification, viciously and brutally" arresting him, and putting on the handcuffs so tightly they cut into his wrist.
The lawsuit, originally filed in Fresno County Superior Court, but later moved to U.S. District Court in Fresno, further alleged Amezcua's arrest was "without a warrant, without probable cause and without any legal justification."
But jurors, who deliberated all afternoon Friday, could not get past Amezcua's attitude.
"He could have turned this around in a heartbeat," Visalia juror Dana Berry said of Amezcua's behavior after he was confronted by police. "He could have diffused it very easily."
Instead, Amezcua began hurling racial slurs at Williams, who is black. Berry said he and his fellow jurors found the slurs "appalling." The insults were tape-recorded by Williams' partner, Jaime Campos, and the tape was played during the trial.