Growing calls for transparency from Sheriff’s Department on arrest in Coachella

There are growing calls for transparency with the Riverside County Sheriff Department stemming from video of an arrest in Coachella that we showed you back in May.

Details: Viewer video shows Deputies arrest suspect while "resisting arrest"

The cellphone video of the arrest shows a suspect on the ground while several deputies punch and knee him.

The department says they were originally called for a man "disturbing the peace." When they tried to arrest Garrett Toro, 35, he became combative, forcing deputies to use physical force. Both Toro and a deputy sustained minor injuries.

Toro is a tribal member of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. Joseph D.L. Mirelez, the tribe's vice chairman wants to see the body cam.

"We just want to see what led to it to figure out what we need to do as a tribe to help our tribal members not get into those types of situations," Mirelez said. "This is someone that I know that I saw just prior to that video, he was out here on the reservation, he's frail, he's thin, he's malnourished, he has mental health issues, and he's homeless. So I didn't understand, I couldn't fathom how four people on him, physically assaulting him was necessary to put this man down."

Toro's arrest was brought up multiple times during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, the same meeting where supervisors declined to vote on a measure to review the Sheriff's Department's policies.

Several councilmembers called into the meeting to voice their support for the measure, including Indio city councilmember Oscar Ortiz. Ortiz also called for the release of the body cam footage in Toro's arrest.

"Right now is the time to send transparency with our Sheriff's Department and our police departments to give our residents confidence in our officers," Ortiz said.

Sheriff Chad Bianco said he believes in transparency, but there are exceptions.

"There is nothing we have that we are not transparent about. The only thing that someone will throw in your face 'Well we asked you a question and you didn't answer.' If there is an ongoing personnel issue or a personnel complaint where we're investigating an employee, whether it's criminal or whether it's administrative, we obviously can't comment on those types of things," Bianco said.

The department is refusing to release body cam footage of the arrest, as well as the 911 call and dispatch communications, saying it "determined that the records requested are exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act."

The department cites several government codes, including one that states "the records in question are exempt because under the facts of the particular case, the public interest served by not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served."

These are the same government codes the department has referred to over the years when denying several public records request made by News Channel 3.

That includes our three request for the body cam footage of last year's deadly deputy-involved shooting of a gunman at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage.

And when a deputy shot and killed a man wielding a knife in July near the Agua Caliente Resort and Casino.

The department did release body cam footage from a recent deadly deputy-involved shooting involving a suspect who attempted to assault deputies with a vehicle near Aguanga. The video was released a little over a month after it happened.

"We have nothing to hide. I am a public servant. I was elected to lead this organization into something different than what it was, and I have every intent of doing it," Bianco said.

The Torres-Martinez tribe is asking for a liason with the Sheriff's Department, which they used to have, for a better working relationship.