OXNARD : Jury Rejects Claim of Police Brutality

An Oxnard man’s claims of police brutality during a 1989 arrest have been rejected by a Superior Court jury.

The jury deliberated about three hours before voting 11 to 1 Friday that force used in the Jan. 27, 1989, arrest of Alejandro Guzman-Flores was reasonable, said attorney Alan Wisotsky, who represented the city of Oxnard and a police officer named in the lawsuit.

In civil cases, only nine votes are required to reach a verdict.

Guzman-Flores claimed during the 10-day trial before Judge Fred Jones that Officers Jana Young and Fred Sedillos beat him on the head and damaged one of his eyes when they arrested him while investigating a report of an armed man.

Guzman-Flores’ lawsuit, filed in November, 1989, said he was working in a motorcycle repair shop when his supervisor asked him to investigate a noise in the alley. It was there that Guzman-Flores, 21 at the time, encountered Young and Sedillos.

Wisotsky said the officers initially believed that Guzman-Flores might have been the man with the gun and treated him as such. During the arrest, Guzman-Flores put up a fight, the attorney said.

“The force was necessary and justified under the circumstances,” Wisotsky said. “He was actively resisting, (although) he was never an aggressor.”

At the trial, Guzman-Flores sought $500,000 in damages, Wisotsky said. He claimed to have lost $50,000 in wages since the incident and said the total medical bill is expected to reach $25,000.