Prosecution: Deputy ‘Lost Control’ In Traffic Stop

An off-duty sheriff’s deputy “lost control” when he threatened to kill a tow truck driver for blocking a lane of traffic on Interstate 10 as a big rig burned along the freeway in Eagle Mountain, a prosecutor told jurors today.

But Richard Heverly’s attorney contended that his client — who faces charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, assault by a public officer, making criminal threats and false imprisonment — was acting within his duties as San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy.

This is Heverly’s second trial. A jury deadlocked on the charges in April, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial.

In her opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Amity Armes said the 43-year-old defendant abused his law enforcement powers when he put a gun in Roger Gilstrap’s ear on Aug. 10, 2008.

“At the end of all the evidence I am sure you will find the defendant lost control,” she told the seven-woman, five-man jury.

The prosecutor said Gilstrap will testify he blocked the right lane of traffic with his tow truck when he noticed a big rig on fire.

A short time later, Heverly pulled up in a red Dodge truck, pulled out his badge and yelled at the driver that his badge entitled him to do whatever he wanted, Armes said.

Heverly, who was coming back from a trip to the river with his family, was wearing a white tank top, board shorts and flip flops, according to Armes.

Gilstrap, who was on a cell phone with a California Highway Patrol dispatcher, ignored the deputy, telling him that he was “on the phone with the CHP,” she said.

The prosecutor said the defendant took the driver’s phone away and continued to tell him to get out of the truck, but when Gilstrap refused, Heverly went back to his truck to get a .360-caliber pistol.

The driver got out of his truck, and the defendant handcuffed Gilstrap’s right arm and pushed him against the bed of the tow truck.

“(Heverly) put his gun into Roger’s ear and twists it,” Armes said. “He tells him, `I have a gun in your ear and I’m going to kill you.”‘

She said the deputy backed off when emergency vehicles began to arrive, but several witnesses had already called in reports of a man with a gun. Another motorist took pictures of what was happening with his cell phone, Armes said.

Heverly had been a sheriff’s deputy for two years and worked as a jailer, according to the prosecutor.

“He had never been in a field training program. He had never made an arrest,” Armes said.

Heverly’s attorney, Michael Schwartz, argued that Gilstrap had no police powers when he blocked traffic.

“He volunteered to do that,” Schwartz said, adding that the tow truck driver told Heverly he could not go any farther.

Schwartz told the panel they would hear from experts who would testify that deputies have police powers when they are on or off duty.

He said that deputies are allowed to use weapon “as a tool to gain compliance.”

Schwartz said Heverly was trying to do his job when he gave Gilstrap orders, which the driver ignored. The attorney also pointed to discrepancies between Gilstrap’s recollection of the events and what other witnesses saw.

“There is much more to this case than may meet the eye,” he said.