Fight fallout persists

  • By Scott North, Diana Hefley and Melissa Slager / Herald Writers
  • Thursday, March 23, 2006 9:00pm
  • Local NewsLocal news

The young man got angry.

He allegedly rammed into a female police officer, injuring her as she tried to arrest one of his friends.

He reportedly taunted police and joined several of his high school classmates in what witnesses say was a near riot.

On Thursday, he was charged with a felony.

Rogelio V. Hernandez, 18, a senior at Everett High School, now must answer as an adult in Snohomish County Superior Court for what prosecutors say was criminal conduct.

It started out as a schoolyard fight between two teenage girls March 6, but it ended with officers being cursed, kicked and menaced by a crowd of students acting as a mob, deputy prosecutor Janice Albert said in court papers.

Hernandez is charged with third-degree assault. He is accused of knocking the police officer to the ground as she was trying to break up the fight.

When another officer tried to arrest him, Hernandez “took a fighting stance and dared the officer to touch him,” then began swinging, Albert said. Officers reported that he continued to fight even after being doused with pepper spray.

All the while, the crowd of up to 100 students surrounded the officers, reportedly yelling and lunging at them.

Six other students, all juveniles, are under investigation for misdemeanor offenses, including disorderly conduct, obstructing police and failing to disperse when ordered. No charges have been filed.

The arrests and how authorities responded to the fight have triggered criticism from some parents and community activists. Most of the students involved were Hispanic.

On Wednesday, activists rallied outside the county courthouse, criticizing police and school officials for what they claim was overreaction to two students involved in a “hair-pulling fight.”

Court papers and witness statements paint a different picture. A school administrator recounted how he was repeatedly kneed by one of the girls, who ignored at least 25 commands to stop fighting.

People in nearby buildings or passers-by gave police statements recounting what appeared to them to be a surprise attack on a female officer while she was separating the fighting girls.

Hernandez struck the officer with such force that one witness told police he was surprised to see her walking around later, court documents say. Other witnesses told police that more than one of the students kicked the officer when she was down.

The officer reported injuries to her ribs, neck and lower back, Albert said.

Critics of the arrests claim the students were subjected to excessive force. Throughout the week, they have pointed to a video clip taken by a student with a cell phone camera.

The brief clip, viewed by The Herald on Thursday, shows an officer arresting a prone teenager. Suddenly, a man wearing a tan or brown shirt approaches and kicks toward the pair.

Students’ families and advocates said they believe the kicking man was a police officer.

Police were provided with a copy of the video clip, but they couldn’t tell who the man was trying to kick, the student or the police officer, Deputy Police Chief Jerry Burke said.

Burke said the image is fuzzy, but the man in the video clip clearly is not in a police uniform. The department had no undercover officers or off-duty police at the school that day, Burke said.

He added that he was “absolutely” certain the person shown kicking on the video clip was not a police officer.

Stephanie Ruiz Angulo, who is helping families with their complaints, said parents of some of the students arrested do not speak English and are apprehensive about complaining about the police.

They hope that filing complaints about police conduct will reveal “the truth of what happened,” she said.

Whatever the outcome, Ruiz Angulo said “the whole point is taking a stand and putting it on the record that people have felt discriminated against, so those concerns could be recognized and solutions can start to be worked on.”

Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.

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