Desert Hot Springs Family Claims Police Pepper Sprayed Them

A Palm Springs city employee was pepper-sprayed and roughed up by Desert Hot Springs police when they went to his house to investigate a hit-and-run collision, an attorney for the man said today.

In his opening statement in trial of Edward Moore’s lawsuit against the city of Desert Hot Springs and five of its police officers, Moore’s attorney, Alexander Perez, told jurors that more than one law enforcement officer used excessive and unnecessary force during a confrontation with his client.

“(One officer) responded by grabbing him and assaulting him,” Perez alleged. “(Another officer) came up behind Mr. Moore, grabbed him and sprayed pepper spray, grabbed him and (wrestled) him to the ground. Another officer joined in the struggle while Mr. Moore was on the floor.”

Perez described a scene of chaos as officers swarmed into the house, detaining some of the 10 occupants, including Moore.

The attorney said a young man hustled some children out of the house “after seeing (Moore) choked into unconsciousness.”

Perez also alleged that police threw some female family members against a wall and pepper-sprayed two of them in the mouth.

Joe McMillin, an attorney for the city and the police officers, said the situation “started rather innocently and went from bad to worse.”

“There’s no question this was an unfortunate incident and sometimes these unfortunate incidents lead to things that one side or the other might not do, under stress and strain,” he said in his opening statement.

He said more officers were called to the house because they reported an “altercation.”

During his opening statement, Perez played the 911 call and a video taken by one of Moore’s daughters after police arrived.

McMillin said most of what Moore is alleging happened before the video was taken, and the daughter who filmed it was “trash talking.”

“(She was) potty mouthing and sticking the camera in everyone’s face and stirring up more trouble,” he alleged.

Moore, the downtown maintenance supervisor for the Palm Springs Department of Parks and Recreation, and his family allege they were brutalized by officers who responded to a hit-and-run accident involving one of Moore’s daughters in front of their Desert Hot Springs home on July 16, 2005.

The daughter got into the accident when she was arriving home, and the other vehicle left the scene. People at Moore’s home wrote down the suspect vehicle’s license plate number, and a family member called 911, according to court documents. Police officers arrived to investigate the accident, and Moore asked them to find the suspected hit-and-run vehicle.

One officer, Sgt. Anthony Sclafani, began yelling at Moore “while another officer came up behind Moore, grabbed Moore’s neck, sprayed Moore … in the face with pepper spray, and tackled Moore to the ground,” according to the plaintiffs’ lawsuit.

Officers ordered several family members to stay inside the house, grabbed the mother of three of Moore’s children, twisted her arm, handcuffed her and “smashed her into the wall, face first,” according to the complaint, who also alleges that the woman lost consciousness and later awoke pinned to the ground by officers who blasted her in the face with pepper spray.

Moore and a female family member were taken to jail and later released.

Moore’s complaint alleges the police had a history of falsely arresting him and denying him law enforcement services.

Moore and members of his family filed the $15 million lawsuit against the city and police a year later.

Attorneys for the officers and the city maintain that Moore was “hostile” and “verbally abusive” when the first officer arrived after the hit-and-run. The officer called for backup because of the number of people milling outside the house and because of Moore’s attitude, defense attorneys stated in a trial brief.

The document stated that one of the home’s female residents “jumped on Officer (Michael) Valentich’s back and began to strike him. He pushed her away and when she came back, he then sprayed her with some pepper spray.”

The plaintiffs’ complaint says that Moore, who is black, had previously sued the city of Desert Hot Springs, where he used to work for the Department of Public Works, for racial discrimination in 1997.

Five officers — Sclafani, Valentich, Matthew Drew, David Henderson and Stephen O’Connor — are named in the current lawsuit . Henderson was sentenced to probation and community service in federal court in Los Angeles last August for using a Taser on a handcuffed suspect, and Sclafani has been accused in federal court of using a Taser to stun suspects.