by Bob Walsh
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in 2020 Sheriff's Deputy Brian Fowell was terminated by the Sacramento
County Sheriff's Office for the use of excessive force against a 14-year
old boy. Pretty much the only evidence was a less than one minute cell
phone video.
At that
time Fowell was working as a Rancho Cordova police officer. Police
services for Rancho Cordova are supplied under contract by the S.O.
Fowell appealed his termination in October of 2020. This past Monday an
arbitration decision came down, stating that while it was appropriate
for some sort of discipline in this case sacking Fowell was
unreasonable. Fowell had an exemplary record up until this incident.
During
the incident Fowell was attempting to cuff 14-year old Elijah Tufono.
The kids family and much of the press described the situation as a
"beating." The officer, and his lawyer, described the blows struck by
the officer as "distraction blows." These are a generally recognized
and accepted method of gaining control of a resistive subject, though
the optics kind of suck. The kid was on the ground and the officer was
attempting to gain control of him.
Fowell
approached the youth after witnessing him purchasing tobacco. The kid
refused to identify himself and actively resisted being placed in
handcuffs. At the time Fowell was part of a Problem Oriented Policing
team which was suppose to act on minor criminal acts which might be
ignored by patrol officers.
The decision to reinstate was made by the Civil Service Commission and the arbiter.
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