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Uploaded: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 1:53 PM
Camera may hold clue to arrests
Opposing sides in birthday fight pin hopes on footage
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
| Last week's birthday party-turned-violent melee is either a case of police brutality or drunken partiers run amok, depending on who you talk to.
What's known for sure is that two people were injured and six arrested last Saturday, Aug. 9, after a confrontation at a rental unit on Old Middlefield Road between 20 police officers and somewhere between 10 and 15 partygoers.
After that the accounts diverge sharply, with police saying they responded to a threatening mob, and arrestees and their friends saying the whole thing started with an unprovoked attack by two officers.
Both sides say they hope the truth can be gleaned from a camera confiscated by police, which witnesses believe was used to take video footage of the confrontation. However, police say that, so far, no such footage has been found on it.
"We will be working with the crime lab to see about the possibility of having the camera examined forensically, to see if there is footage in a not-obvious spot or to recover anything that might have been deleted," wrote police spokesperson Liz Wylie in an e-mail. "If something (anything) was deleted, they will be able recover it from the SIM card."
While police sort through evidence and file charges in the aftermath of the fight, arrestees have obtained lawyers, most of whom told their clients not to speak to the media.
The strongest charges were filed against Henrique Bortuluzzi, a waiter at Cantankerous Fish who was celebrating his 27th birthday that day, and Aaron Mestemaker, 31, a vice president of manufacturing for Sports Gallery Authenticated in Mountain View. Both received injuries to their face during the confrontation.
"We're just trying to pull our lives together," Bortuluzzi said before declining to comment further.
Responding to last week's Voice story on the incident, Eduardo Lay, a Palm, Inc. employee who was shot with a Taser gun by police during the incident, said, "there were definitely some exaggerations."
A friend of the six arrestees, Mountain View resident and IBM software engineer Wedge Martin, sat down with Bortuluzzi, his sister Beatriz Bortuluzzi, Gilberto Frosoni and Lay to get the story after it happened.
"These guys didn't lift a finger in any way against the police," Martin said. "I will go to court for any of them as a character witness. It was just blown out of proportion."
Police and witnesses say the trouble started when the two responding officers, Wahed Magee and Temo Gonzalez, arrived at the party at around 7 p.m. due to a noise complaint. They were approached by party host Mestemaker, police said, who was visibly drunk and became argumentative.
Police had already responded to two noise complaints about the party earlier that afternoon, and told Mestemaker and two other unnamed hosts that there would likely be arrests if they had to come back, Wylie said. While many neighbors were fine with the noise, other neighbors said they were willing to press charges for disturbing the peace.
What happened next is in dispute, but Mestemaker was brought to the ground face-first by the officers, splitting open his chin. According to Martin, the action seemed "spontaneous" and unprovoked to partygoers, who became scared and asked officers to help him as he lay on the ground.
But according to Wylie, "As they tried to push him down he fought back and pushed up in an effort to get away. Mestemaker suddenly stopped pushing up, and therefore the officer's force downward caused him to fall to the ground in an uncontrolled manner, causing the injury to his face as he hit the ground."
Police say Bortuluzzi and Gilberto Frosoni, 53, then tried to make their way through the crowd, with friends holding them back as they shouted at the officers. They did not heed warnings to stand back, police say, and Bortuluzzi had a half-full Corona beer bottle in his hand. Police say he raised the bottle as if to throw it, but friends say he had no such intentions.
He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon -- the beer bottle -- which is a felony. Police ended up forcing him to the ground as well, causing him to receive 15 stitches near his eye and a $4,000 hospital bill.
His sister Beatriz soon got into the fray, followed by her boyfriend Lay, police said. Both were charged with obstructing an officer. Martin disagreed, saying Beatriz and another woman who was arrested, Gabriela Klein, never approached the officers.
PREVIOUSLY: Birthday party gone bad Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by jk8, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Aug 22, 2008 at 9:44 am Huge surprise that the SIM in Gabriella's video camera magically has no footage of the birthday party on it. We knew this was going to happen from day 1. Though it was clever wordsmithing on Wylie's part in her original statement to the MV Voice saying how happy she was that they would be able to use the video footage in court, knowing that they were going to remove its contents ( if they hadn't already ).
Talk about obstruction of justice. I guess we all have to continue to feel uncomfortable in the same town we pay our property taxes.
Did anyone notice this from mountainview.gov:
'At present, Mountain View has no city ordinance prohibiting loud noise. The California Penal Code gives limited authority to enforce "disturbing the peace."'
I suppose that 'limited authority' has provisions for beating people on their front lawns with no further provocation than to 'become argumentative.' For those of you who commented on the first article indicating that these individuals must've been in a gang, please notice in this article their professions. Vice president of a successful corporation, waiter in fine dining, silicon valley tech company employees. This could happen to you, so take extreme caution the next time you interact with the Mountain View Fascism Department.
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Posted by dude, a resident of another community, on Aug 22, 2008 at 11:05 am It’s funny how the video footage went missing. Like anyone couldn’t see that coming. Twenty cops for ten to fifteen people that screams excessive use of force right there. To bad this case is going to come down to a “he said, she said” situation.
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Posted by Ned, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 22, 2008 at 11:59 am When I call the cops to stop a weird old man from breaking down my front gate, one cop shows up a half hour later. In this case 10 cops show up for a barbeque? What the hec?
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Posted by watcher, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 22, 2008 at 1:24 pm Just another case of Mtn.View police using excessive and inappropriate escalation of force. I was at a very mellow party last year when the MVPD arrived. They illegally entered the home, escalated force with threats to taser when the resident responded demanding that they leave the house. The host was taken by force and arrested for resisting arrest. The charges were dropped because the DA had nothing to work with. Go figure, huh?
I think that camera and memory card should be analyzed by an independent lab. I'm not sure how much I trust MVPD any more. Too many young punk power tripping officers these days.
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Posted by Karen, a resident of another community, on Aug 22, 2008 at 9:19 pm Perhaps the partygoer with the camera was too drunk to operate it properly?
Also interesting how these officers are implied to be multi-culturally insensitive when one of them is Afghani and the other Mexcian?? Just a thought...
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Posted by Bernie Brightman, a resident of the North Whisman neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2008 at 11:41 am 20 cops and every one of them must have gone by here with their sirens blaring at full blast. To address a local noise complaint they created noise far larger and louder, but throughout the whole district. How much sense does that make?
Are we thinking here in Mountain View or just reacting?
It's called noise pollution people. What are you doing about it?
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Posted by Bernie Brightman, a resident of the North Whisman neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2008 at 11:52 am 20 cops and every one of them must have gone by here with their sirens blaring at full blast. To address a local noise complaint they created noise far larger and louder, but throughout the whole district. How much sense does that make?
Are we thinking here in Mountain View or just reacting?
It's called noise pollution people. What are you doing about it?
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Posted by Just a better thought, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2008 at 12:56 pm "Perhaps the partygoer with the camera was too drunk to operate it properly?"
Was the cop that deleted the video sober?
"Also interesting how these officers are implied to be multi-culturally insensitive when one of them is Afghani and the other Mexcian??"
How do you know the nationality of the officers...unless you are one of them?
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Posted by Open-minded, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 23, 2008 at 7:20 pm You don't have to be white and/or born in the U.S. to be multi-culturally insensitive! Bigots come in all colors and come from all cultures.
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Posted by USA, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Aug 24, 2008 at 11:26 pm "either a case of police brutality or drunken partiers run amok"
Probably both. Out of control drunks with cops having to beat the down.
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Posted by just asking, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 25, 2008 at 12:02 am If the victims were "out of control" and the police were just doing their job, then why did they erase the video?
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Posted by realist, a resident of the North Whisman neighborhood, on Aug 25, 2008 at 11:18 am Where is there any proof the cops erased the video or anything else? If these people were willing to fight with, or for you more liberal people "become argumentative" with the cops, just think how they would treat the rest of us, or what they would do to the rest of us if we asked them to be quiet. How dare you whiners expect perfection from your police then complain when they do what is necessary to ensure our protection and quality of living, especially when people dont heed several warnings to be queit. What was so hard about turning down the radio and respecting other peoples quiet? Who are these people and why do they think they are entitled to more than the rest of us. Good job and keep up the good work MVPD. There are a lot of us behind you and appreciate you keeping us safe and our neighborhoods a good place to live.
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Posted by Demetri, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2008 at 5:19 pm What I dont understand is the fact that none of the "victims" have come out to protest the "brutal testosterone filled MVPD." We have people who werent there talking as if they know what actually happened and defending their friends just out of loyalty for them. Sounds like they are staying off the records because after they became sober they realized they should have just cooperated with Police and not tried going against them. I am totally supportive of being accountable...but the fact that people are presuming cops actually jumped over fences and then for no reason beat up people is beyond obsurd. Next time I see "Lucifer" as described by one blogger...I am going to give him a high-five for taking care of buisness. Thanks you for what you do Mountain View Police Department...I am sure alot of your work goes un-appreciated
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Posted by Justice WILL prevail, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2008 at 5:27 pm Nice try, friends of the MVPD, but the evidence doesn't support you. Hope this one doesn't cost the city too much.
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Posted by Justice, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2008 at 5:32 pm P.S. "Cops...for no reason beat up people is beyond absurd."
Really? Rodney King mean anything to you? If not for the obliterated video, the MVPD would be facing a similar situation. Unfortunately, Rodney King was not an isolated instance.
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Posted by Carlo, a resident of another community, on Aug 26, 2008 at 10:44 pm How do we know there was even an intact video on the camera in the first place??
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Posted by final word, a resident of another community, on Oct 9, 2008 at 2:43 pm Hmmm, interesting. How many times have you people put on a uniform and a bullet-proof vest. How many times have you had to take a gun with you to work instead of a pen or laptop computer? What you fail to recognize is that officers CHOOSE to do that every day. Police officers are human, have feelings, families, hobbies, fears and joys. It is VERY hard to become a police officer these days and I can tell you here and now that the officers involved were NOT in the wrong. An Officer is NOT going to jusrt assault someone because they like it! There is too much at risk! Simple fact is that one thing led to another at that party, one person got arrested...not for loud music but for OBSTRUCTING or DELAYING the officers in the performance of their duties! Then, as often happens, other people (who let the ALCOHOL dictate their actions) became involved in a situation in which they should have stayed out of. An officer has a duty, no...an OBLIGATION to go home at the end of their shift ALIVE. If a person exhibits force, it will be answered by force. Because I know you are going to ask, no I was not there but I have been in many, many situations very similar. Until some of you have the guts, the pride or honor to devote your life to the protection of others whom you do not know, and run toward trouble and not away, all you will ever do is talk! And by the way...you being able to voice you opinion is another RIGHT you have which officers protect, in some countries the police would have been breaking down your door to arrest you for some of the things you have said. Be glad you live in America where there are people willing to protect your rights while you verbally spit in their face.
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Posted by Anonymous, a resident of the Whisman Station neighborhood, on Sep 30, 2010 at 6:51 pm I would be happier if they did their job on serious criminals, like the ones constantly (every single day) trying to break in. Typical sentence about 1-2 years for repeat burglary suspects when they commit murder. Typical sentence for vigilante homeowners is life in prison (payrolled after 20 years in prison). When committing a crime, make sure you commit a misdemeanour and plea bargain with the DA to accept a guilty plea on the lesser charge to drop all other more serious charges.
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