Cops’ lawyers say Phuong Ho at fault
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
Attorneys representing the two police officers beating and Taser-ing the San Jose Vietnamese student claim the student was at fault for resisting arrest, says the San Jose Mercury News here.
Terry Bowman, representing Kenneth Siegel, the officer who repeatedly beat Phuong Ho, told the paper that Ho “is responsible for his conduct, and he is responsible for not taking lawful directives from a police officer.”
The “lawful directives” apparently refers to Siegel telling Ho to stay still while Siegel went to look for Ho’s ID in his room. Ho, instead, followed the cop, and officer Steven Payne Jr. slammed Ho into a wall to put handcuffs on him.
According to Ho, his glasses fell off, so he went after the glasses, and that was when the police started beating him.
Bowman said of Ho’s conduct, “He is being combative and noncompliant, and he raises the stakes of the game.”
The beating was captured on a grainy cell phone video taken by Ho’s roommate.
At one point, handcuffs could be heard snapping (which the lawyers now dispute), and after that Siegel delivered yet another baton blow.
