Former CHP officer found not guilty of assaulting prisoner

A former California Highway Patrol officer who was accused of unlawfully slamming a prisoner to the ground at the Riverside County Jail in Indio was cleared Tuesday of a misdemeanor assault charge.

Jurors received the case Monday and deliberated through Tuesday before acquitting former Officer Christopher Lang III, 31, of the assault by a peace officer charge.

The prisoner was handcuffed — with his hands behind his back — at the time of the alleged assault on June 21, 2014, in the booking area at the Riverside County jail in Indio, according to an arrest declaration prepared by CHP Sgt. Christopher Hamilton.

“Without provocation or cause, the defendant assaulted the victim by violently throwing him to the ground, causing injury,” Hamilton alleged.

The encounter occurred in the presence of witnesses and in full view of jail surveillance cameras, and the video “clearly shows there was no cause to use the amount of force the defendant utilized,” the declaration alleged.

Lang had remained out of custody on his own recognizance.