Man Says He Was Wrongfully Detained By LASD, Files Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Florence-area man is suing Los Angeles County, the Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Alex Villanueva, alleging he was wrongfully detained for hours in 2020 by deputies who ransacked his home and destroyed his camera footage of them entering his residence.

Alex Gutierrez's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges civil rights violations, false arrest and imprisonment, unreasonable search and seizure, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, wanton destruction of evidence and negligence. Gutierrez alleges the deputy in charge ultimately told him he was conducting a homicide investigation, but later released the plaintiff and his brother.

Gutierrez seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed Friday. An LASD representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

According to the suit, deputies went to Gutierrez's Florence Avenue home early in the morning of Feb. 13, 2020, without a search warrant and banged on his door demanding entrance. Gutierrez fetched his video camera and began recording as he opened the front door, leaving the screen door shut, the suit states.

The deputies broke through the screen door and one yelled that Gutierrez was recording them, the suit states. Another deputy allegedly pointed a gun at Gutierrez, then lowered the weapon, while another pushed the plaintiff and caused him to drop the camera.

Gutierrez and his brother, Juan Carlos Gutierrez, were removed from the home and one deputy said multiple times, "He was recording us," the suit states. They were handcuffed and seated near a tree, but told they were not under arrest, the suit states.

A sergeant asked Gutierrez if he had firearms, illegal drugs, large sums of money or large amounts of jewelry, but Gutierrez "lawfully stated that he would not answer questions," the suit states. Gutierrez's brother shook his head "no" when asked the same question, according to the suit.

Both brothers were later put in the rear seat of a patrol car, where they remained for hours, the suit states. A deputy who said he was in charge told Gutierrez that he was investigating a homicide and that the plaintiff's mother, who was home with her sons when deputies arrived, was going to jail even though she probably knew nothing about it, the suit states.

Gutierrez and his brother were later released from custody and their handcuffs removed, the suit states. When Gutierrez asked for the identities of the other deputies, the deputy in charge "became enraged, hostile" and refused to give him the information, according to the suit.

Gutierrez later entered his home after the deputies left and allegedly found the premises ransacked. The plaintiff's camera was left near the entrance and when he reinserted the battery that had been removed, he "realized that the video of the deputies' assaultive behavior and unlawful entry into the family residence had been deleted," the suit states.

The suit alleges that Gutierrez had a right to record the encounter and one or more of the deputies destroyed important evidence in violation of his civil rights. In addition, there was no probably cause to detain him, the suit states.

—City News Service