By JOSEPH SERNA contact the
reporter
Two Indio officers are
arrested; one's accused of a beating, the other of covering it up
An Indio police officer has
been charged with beating up a man and his partner with covering it up after
the confrontation was caught on videotape, the Riverside County Sheriff's
Department said.
The officers, Charles Holloway
and Gerardo Martinez, surrendered Monday after a judge issued warrants for
their arrest.
The incident happened early
Sept. 12. In a letter to the Desert Sun newspaper, the man arrested by the
officers, Ruben Joshua Martinez, 24, said he was "beat, punched, kicked
and stomped repeatedly."
In a subsequent interview with
the paper from the County Jail in Blythe, he said he was stopped on California
111 as he walked his pit bull. Martinez said he thought the officers were
looking for him because of a parole violation related to a burglary conviction
from 2009.
He said he ran when he saw
Officer Martinez, who he contended had been rough with him before.
The investigation was initiated
after Indio Police Chief Richard Twiss reviewed a videotape of the arrest
caught on a nearby restaurant's security camera and asked the Sheriff's
Department to launch an independent probe. The officers have been on paid
administrative leave since the investigation began Sept. 17, Indio police said.
In an interview with the Desert
Sun, Ruben Martinez said Officer Martinez held him down and punched him in the
face repeatedly and was soon joined by Holloway, who he said kicked him in the
face. The manager of the restaurant whose camera captured the incident later
turned it over to police.
A restaurant employee who answered
the phone Tuesday declined to comment and said the manager who viewed the tape
and turned it over was unavailable.
Riverside County Sheriff's
Department officials deferred comment to Indio police, which referred questions
to the Sheriff's Department.
According to court documents,
Holloway was charged with felony assault under the color of authority, and
Martinez was charged with misdemeanor accessory after the fact. Both men are
free on bail and are due back in court Nov. 21.
Meanwhile, Ruben Martinez
remains in jail for the alleged parole violation. Court records show that four
days before he was confronted by the officers, a Riverside County sheriff's
deputy filed a document supporting the arrest warrant for him.
Ruben Martinez is accused of
pointing a gun at his mother and threatening to kill her in 2013 as the family
was moving out of their Coachella home. Martinez's mother and her
daughter-in-law were carrying some of Martinez's things out front when he
pulled a gun on his mother and wanted to know who was moving his things.
His mother dropped the items
and locked herself in her bedroom and called police, according to the document.
Martinez was charged with making criminal threats and assault with a gun; he
has two strikes from previous burglary convictions. He has pleaded not guilty
and is due back in court Wednesday.
Martinez's attorney also
declined to comment.
