Plaintiff's attorney seeks to unseal information in civil suit against four Clovis police officers

On a September night four years ago, 20-year-old George Macias Jr. was riding his motorcycle on Willow Avenue when a Clovis police officer pulled him over.

What happened next to Macias is the subject of a federal civil rights lawsuit in which Macias contends four Clovis police officers savagely beat Macias while he was handcuffed and used a stun gun on him.

 

Police then arrested Macias on charges of resisting arrest.

All lies, attorney Charles Tony Piccuta says in court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno. Piccuta and Panos Lagos represent Macias.

In fact, a Fresno County Superior Court jury in March 2014 found Macias not guilty of resisting arrest. Macias pleaded guilty to the traffic infraction of driving a motorcycle without a license, court records say.

 Piccuta says the proof that officers Steve Cleaver, Cesar Gonzalez, Eric Taifane and Angel Velasquez fabricated their account is in his second-amended civil complaint against the City of Clovis. But the file includes redactions ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara McAuliffe. The redacted information covers confidential Internal Affairs documents pertaining to the officers’ account of the incident.

On June 17, Piccuta, who has filed a motion to unseal the information, will ask McAuliffe to reconsider her decision. “I’m fighting to make this public because everyone in Clovis should know this information,” Piccuta said in a telephone interview.

Fresno Bee, 6/10/16

 

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article83073057.html#storylink=cpy