According to a lawsuit filed after the incident, Lemos’ sister was sitting in a truck with her boyfriend when Hero Holton began questioning the man outside the vehicle and then pulled her out of the passenger’s seat without cause.
In response, the suit claims that Lemos ran up, protested the Hero’s actions and demanded a female officer be present before Hero Holton shoved her backward and told her no one else was coming.
The federal lawsuit says family members tried to calm the situation and told Lemos to go back in the house, but Hero Holton walked up the driveway, grabbed her from behind and put her in a chokehold.
He then picked Lemos up off the ground and threw her face-first onto the driveway, the lawsuit claims – and “put his knee in the back of [her] head and began grinding her face into the gravel.”
“Deputy Holton yelled ‘Stop resisting!’… as blood pooled on the ground under [Lemos’] face… despite her screams and her family’s pleas to stop,” the lawsuit says.
Lemos was then handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer (!) before being transported to a hospital to treat her injuries.
Sonoma County prosecutors declined to charge Lemos in the case following three court appearances, and in September, reportedly told her that charges had been rejected for filing.
On November 13 however – the day after she filed the federal lawsuit against the county, Holton, and the sheriffs office – prosecutors charged her with one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest.
“There’s no other possible reason,” he said, having now filed a vindictive prosecution claim against the county in Superior Court. “They had to reverse-engineer some justification.”
Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said the retaliation allegation is “baseless,” and claimed that her office made the decision to charge Lemos in early October, not after she filed the suit.
Last week, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Gary Medvigy began hearing arguments in the vindictive prosecution claim and prosecutors tried to derail the hearing by saying “work-product privilege” would be violated if they were forced to testify.
Medvigy said however that he was “going to pierce the privilege” and make them testify under subpoena for why they charged Lemos when they did.
He said the timing of prosecutors’ actions can’t be ignored and scheduled an evidence hearing before a three-judge panel on April 13 – a decision that the district attorney’s office is now appealing.
Another comment on the makeup of pheroes psyches:
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2016/03/24/139942
See? Fuggin prosecutors are scum. This kind of thing shows why nobody should be considered for a judge’s position who has been a prosecutor or solicitor for any level of government, especially for the Supreme Court.
Of course, nobody who has been a cop should be considered for status as a human being either.
Ed,
I’d take it one step further. Anyone that is member of any association of attorneys should be barred from holding public office. Judge, rep, senator, president, etc. The District Attorney’s office should be abolished and if a prosecutor is required he/she should be contracted at the prevailing rate from the private sector. Ideally, a grand jury would appoint a prosecutor if and only if a case warranted such. Problem is grand juries these days are so f’n stupid they don’t know their true power. So are the people that impaneled for petit juries. Petit juries can subpoena evidence. They don’t need the permission of the judge for that. Problem is education. The state wants stupid people on juries because that keeps the power with the state and not the people. The primary reason alcohol prohibition is no longer the law of the land in the united States wasn’t due to enforcement efforts. It was due to knowledgeable juries voting to acquit people because the deemed the law bad and unjust.
One thing really stuck with me from a movie I watched long ago. New Jack City. It starred Wesley Snipes as the drug king pin. During his trial Snipes’ character boasted that the state created him as a result of the laws they passed to control drugs. The smart ass prosecutor loudly exclaimed, “Well the law isn’t on trial here you are!” But you see, this was a lie. In all trials with petit juries the law is always on trial as to whether it is just or not. An unjust law is a tyranny. Plain and simple.
Only tyrants use unjust laws!
David Ward
Hi David,
I wouldn’t object to a jury of my peers. That is, a jury composed of people with IQs at least in the normal/above average range, literate, with a working knowledge of history and philosophy.
Of course, that’s asking too much.
Kind of like asking the consent of the governed.
Hi Ed,
Indeed.
Some simple, effective reforms:
Anyone who has ever “served” in the military is precluded from being a peace officer.
Prosecutors and judges must be elected rather than appointed.
All police shops must be local (county sheriff) and the sheriff elected. No police departments.
No military grades among police.
The term, “law enforcement” must be thrown in the woods.
Juries must have and be made aware of their power to demand/evidence/testimony and to refuse to convict if they consider the law at issue to be contrary to moral right.
When do they attack? Always and evermore. When the state rolls you for the ten thousandth time,h, it’s shame on you. Shame and fish heads is all you’re due. The toxic turd of statism’ll kill you. Founders and famed heroes be dammed, one and all.
Better to be a stateless swarthy filthy Romany like me.
The Gypsies
http://www.pushkins-poems.com/Gypsies01.htm
Carmen
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2465/2465-h/2465-h.htm
Truly, if you can grok humanity, statist and stateless alike. Then you can transcend and escape. For you know all they know and no longer have need of them. Then make do with what you can peacefully earn or obtain. If you remain in anyway dependent then you still must eventually submit or commit aggression.
A real fictional hero, is Glenn Ford in the film Cowboy 1958. Best quote, I’m tired of burying people. Hot Got Dam Merung that’s a gut one. Nary a fish head to be had.
To be fair, this is the best of what the state engenders. Poems. Novellas. Librettos. Operas. Head Mainstream Mythologist Beezy in charge George Bizet.
Habanera, English subs
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_8y1dj7bvjE
Hopefully this goes in Lemos’ favor.
At least from the details presented in the article, there was no justification for the phero’s actions. The prosecutors’ actions are not good either.
The shame is that the local citizens will probably pay for the misdeeds of these “wonderful” people.