"That's the way the system works"
October 4, 2022 \u2014 During an investigation last year into a collision where no one was hurt and no property was damaged, Ukiah police broke several bones in a man\u2019s face and handcuffed a woman in her own home, even after she indicated she was willing to cooperate. \n\nOfficers had a case against Arturo Valdes, who was accused by another motorist of causing a minor accident in the parking lot of the Ross Department store a little after 6:30 pm on March 28. The victim didn\u2019t speak English, but KZYX obtained police body camera video of him describing the incident to Ukiah Police Officer Daniel Parker with the help of a witness. The victim said he had stopped suddenly to avoid hitting pedestrians, when Valdes, who was behind him, bumped into him with a lifted black GMC truck. He said Valdes \u201csaid a bunch of bad things in English and Spanish,\u201d and drove off fast, with a woman and two small children in the vehicle. He told Parker he wanted insurance information, and, according to his volunteer translator, and to \u201cget him in trouble, because it\u2019s not fair, he\u2019s driving drunk with two kids in the back.\u201d According to a written police report, the victim added in a followup interview that Valdes asked him if he wanted to fight. \n\nSurveillance video from outside the Ross department store isn\u2019t high quality, but it does show that a man matching Valdes\u2019 distinct appearance did bump into another car that afternoon. But Valdes didn\u2019t admit it, when Officer Eric Rodello and Sergeant Rondald Donahue questioned him. He said \u201cno,\u201d when officers asked if he had just been \u201cinvolved in a little traffic collision,\u201d and told them that his black truck was missing. Police found the truck about a block away from his home the next morning.\n \nValdes wasn\u2019t the only one providing bad information. Police dispatch had reported erroneously that he was currently on DUI probation, though that had expired in December. And when Valdes said he wouldn\u2019t answer any questions until his lawyer arrived, officers told him he didn\u2019t have a right to an attorney.\n\nValdes\u2019 attorney, Richard Middlebrook, says that was another piece of misinformation. \u201cThat is a flagrant lie, and a misstatement of almost every bit of case law, ever,\u201d he remarked in an interview over the summer.\n\nIt\u2019s hard to see exactly what happened in the next few minutes. Valdes walked away. The officers reached for him. He tried to shake them off and then to stand up as the three men flailed on the ground. It took about eleven seconds for Donahue to break Valdes\u2019 nose and fracture his sinus and eye socket. Middlebrook said the couple\u2019s private Ring camera footage provided a better view of what happened. Later that night at the hospital, Valdes and Donahue argued over what happened during that eleven seconds.\n\nValdes insisted that \u201cI never intended to swing.\u201d\nDonahue said, \u201cTo me, it looked like you were. So I grabbed your hand and I tried to take you to the ground. You pushed forward. I actually fell backwards. I got up. We pushed you to the ground.\u201d\n\u201cBoth of you were on the ground. I never swung at you. I had every ability to swing at you, and I never did,\u201d Valdes argued. \u201cLike you said, he was flipped over, and I never.\u201d\n\u201cYou flipped him over your back,\u201d Donahue said.\n\u201cYes,\u201d Valdes replied. \u201cAnd I never, never, never intentioned to swing.\u201d\n\nDonahue assured Valdes that he would include that in his report, and true to his word, he made a note of it. Before taking him to the hospital, though, Rodello and Donahue knocked on the door to speak with Elizabeth Valdes, Arturo\u2019s wife. She took a few steps backwards with her small son in her arms. I was not able to discern from the video that she was stumbling, but the officers judged that she was so intoxicated it would be in the child\u2019s best interests for Officer Parker to care for him until CPS arrived. \n\n\u201cWhat happened with your husband, I apologize,\u201d Donahue said. \u201cThat should never happen. I wish it would have went different. What I want you to do, though, please, just go ahead and put the baby down. My partner \u2014 actually, I have a little bit of blood on my hands, so I\u2019m not gonna do anything.\u201d \n\nElizabeth Valdes flinched and sobbed, \u201cthis is so horrible.\u201d\n\nParker held the boy and tried to amuse him by giving him shiny police department stickers. After a few minutes, Elizabeth Valdes began to walk towards them slowly. She pressed her hands together for a few moments when she reached the man and her child, then held her hands out for him to give the baby back.\n\nAfter warning her that she was about to be arrested, Rodello and Donahue cuffed her, without reading her rights or informing her of any charges. In his report, Rodello wrote that Elizabeth Valdes \u201ccontinued to be uncooperative, and was upsetting the children.\u201d But about twenty minutes later, he didn\u2019t take her up on it when she told him she would provide the information he said he needed.\n\n\u201cDo you have insurance on the truck in there?\u201d he asked.\n\u201cOf co...