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b'December 31, 2021 \\u2014 Toby Keith\\u2019s anthem to military valor, \\u201cCourtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)\\u201d was on the radio in Officer Alex Cowan\\u2019s police car the day his dash camera recorded him beating a naked, mentally ill man in Ukiah. As Cowan\\u2019s colleagues iced their bloodied hands in the aftermath, the singer crooned, \\u201cA mighty sucker punch came flyin\\u2019 in from the back. Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye, Man, we lit up your world like the Fourth of July.\\u201d\\nThe police videos were released Thursday, as a civil lawsuit in federal court winds its way towards trial.Gerardo Magdaleno, who suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, ran out of psychiatric medications on April first of 2021. He was standing on South State Street, alone, unarmed, and wearing nothing but a wristwatch when Ukiah Police Officer Saul Perez pulled up and shot him with a taser within less than a minute of telling him to get on the ground.\\nAccording to an amended complaint filed in the US Northern District Court of California last month, Ukiah police officers tasered the severely disabled man four times, punched him 54 times, kneed him four times, once in the groin, kicked him in the head, and emptied an entire can of pepper spray in his face, which amounts to 20-25 applications. \\nMultiple bystander cell phone videos of the incident immediately began circulating on social media. But on Thursday, video from Cowan\\u2019s dash camera and Officer Perez\\u2019 body camera were distributed to the public..\\nThe civil lawsuit names Officers Saul Perez, Jordan Miller, Alex Cowan and Lieutenant Andy Phillips as defendants. Former Ukiah Police Chief Justin Wyatt and the City of Ukiah are also being sued. Previously, only Perez, who was the responding officer, had been identified.\\nThe lawsuit claims discrimination on the basis of a disability, wrongful arrest, excessive force, and inadequate training. Magdaleno\\u2019s attorney Izaak Schwaiger wrote that the City of Ukiah and former Chief Wyatt failed to train officers properly to accommodate the needs of the mentally ill, \\u201ddespite police interactions with mentally ill individuals being a commonplace occurrence.\\u201d He is seeking damages, attorney\\u2019s fees, and \\u201cinjunctive relief requiring the City of Ukiah to adopt national best practices with regard to policing people with disabilities.\\u201d \\nMuch of the complaint is a description of the videos, including a tally of the blows, taser strikes, and pepper spraying. \\nDuring an interlude that Perez described on his police radio as \\u201ca standoff,\\u201d Magdaleno stood up, looked at the sky, and began to whistle. Officer Miller arrived, did not turn on his body camera or his dash camera, and immediately shot Magdaleno with his taser.\\n\\u201cYou got a taser?\\u201d Perez asked him. \\u201cGo ahead and deploy it. Yeah. Zap him. I already hit him once.\\u201d Miller hit him twice, and both officers shouted at Magdaleno to \\u201cget on the ground! Get on the fuckin\\u2019 ground!\\u201d\\nCowan arrived just as Miller was administering two knee strikes to Magdaleno\\u2019s buttocks. He got out of his car, ran over to where Perez and Miller were holding onto Magdaleno\\u2019s arms, and punched him in the back of the head.\\nThe day after the incident, the Ukiah Police Department issued a press release containing several characterizations that are not supported by the department\\u2019s own videos, including a claim that there were \\u201cnumerous citizens, including children in the immediate area.\\u201d The blows to the head were described as \\u201cdistraction strikes,\\u201d and the statement assured the public that \\u201cthe technique was ceased\\u201d as soon as Magdeleno was handcuffed.\\nBut Cowan\\u2019s dash camera showed the three officers kicking and punching Magdaleno as he lies unresisting on the ground, being handcuffed. Miller and Perez lift him off the ground briefly, one on each arm, and Cowan shoots him in the back with a taser. Lieutenant Andy Phillips arrives and the men flip Magdaleno onto his stomach. Miller throws himself onto Magdaleno while the other three immobilize him. He proceeds to punch him four times and slap him twice, all in the back of the head. Shwaiger\\u2019s complaint registers that the three officers and one lieutenant held him on the blacktop for almost four minutes, during which Magdaleno uttered a phrase that has become familiar in police encounters that end badly. \\n\\u201cLet me breathe,\\u201d he implored the officers who were wrapping him in a leg restraint and removing the taser barbs. \\u201cYou can breathe,\\u201d an officer assured him, then added a piece of medical misinformation: \\u201cYou can talk, you can breathe, bro.\\u201d\\nThe officers were not unharmed. Miller and Perez suffered multiple abrasions on their hands, which paramedics treated at the scene.\\n\\u201cI\\u2019m pretty sure I hit his fuckin\\u2019 tooth, dude,\\u201d Perez remarked. \\u201cIt hurts so bad.\\u201d A colleague congratulated him on his \\u201csmart move,\\u201d in waiting for backup to arrive before tackling Magdaleno. \\u201cYeah, I didn\\u2019t want to take him by myself,\\u201d Perez laughed.\\nAssistant City Manager Shannon Riley said Ukiah city staff are not able to discuss the matter, since a civil lawsuit is pending in federal court. It is one of many lawsuits that have been filed recently against the city, the police department, and individual members of the force. \\nIzaak Schwaiger, Magdaleno\\u2019s attorney, has sued the City of Ukiah in the US District Court before, along with former Ukiah Police Sergeant Kevin Murray, alleging he attacked a disabled veteran named Christopher Rasku. \\nIn a separate matter, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster has charged Murray with sex crimes, burglary, and possession of methamphetamine, in multiple incidents between 2014 and 2020. In yet another court case, former Detective Isabel Siderakis is suing the city, the police department, and Kevin Murray for discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation, claiming among other things that Murray attacked her during an out-of-town training and the department failed to take her complaints seriously. \\nAnd earlier this month, Madisyn Carley, the daughter of new Ukiah Police Chief Noble Waidelich\\u2019s ex-girlfriend, filed a civil suit against Waidelich for domestic violence alleged to have occurred between 2011 and 2015. The matter was investigated by the sheriff\\u2019s office, but Eyster declined to prosecute, citing the lack of credible evidence.\\nRiley said the Magdaleno matter is still being handled by an independent investigator. When he concludes his investigation, he will turn it over to the District Attorney, who will decide whether or not to prosecute it as a criminal matter. And the county is using Measure B funds to hire a part-time mental health worker who has been helping the Ukiah police for a few weeks now. The city has hired Dale Allen, of San Francisco law firm Allen, Glaessner, Hazelwood and Werth, to defend it in the Magdaleno case. Reached by phone yesterday, Allen said that during the course of litigation, he expects the officers to explain the use of force, what they did, and why they did it. He declined to say how much the city has paid him or what his hourly rate is, citing business privacy.\\nA preliminary hearing is scheduled for September of 2022. Allen said there is a \\u201chuge, huge backlog of cases due to covid.\\u201d'