Santa Ana council orders external review after video shows man being punched by police

The Santa Ana City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to hire an independent investigator who will report directly to the council to examine a use of force incident on Oct. 1 involving two Santa Ana Police Department officers.

The decision came amid public outcry and anticipated litigation over the encounter, which was captured on video by a relative of Florentino Lopez Jr., who is shown being struck multiple times by police officers while being detained on the ground.

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said any costs for the investigator beyond her and the city manager’s authority to approve would need to be placed on a future council agenda and would be made available for public view.

“We will make sure that we communicate that this is a priority for the city, and it needs to be done quickly,” Carvalho said.

After Tuesday’s closed session, Mayor Valerie Amezcua said the council voted to release the officers’ identities and relevant body-worn camera footage if an external review determines they caused significant physical harm. Separately, the council authorized the police chief and city manager to hire an outside investigator, if they determine one is warranted, to conduct an administrative review typically handled by SAPD’s Internal Affairs division.

The footage, which has been widely circulated on social media, shows two SAPD officers detaining Lopez, a 28-year-old Santa Ana resident, near his home and placing him against a patrol car. The video then shows Lopez being thrown to the ground and punched multiple times by at least one officer while family members repeatedly asked the officers to stop. Relatives who witnessed the incident accused the officers of striking Lopez with a knee to the face and pressing a knee on his neck. They also allege police placed a spit mask over his bleeding face even though he wasn’t spitting.

Amezcua called the use-of-force video “disturbing” in social media posts and called for the independent review and investigation.

Speaking from the dais Tuesday night, she said that while she understands SAPD’s Internal Affairs will conduct an investigation “in accordance with department policy and state law,” she believes an outside independent investigation should be conducted for transparency, adding, “I respect the process and don’t want to interfere with it, but I have a responsibility to the public.”

“If an investigation concludes that action should be taken against the officers, I will support it,” she added. “We cannot allow the actions of one or two officers to impact the good work done by others.”

John Kremer, the attorney representing Lopez, said he plans to challenge the four charges made against Lopez in a felony criminal complaint filed Monday, Oct. 5, by the Orange County District Attorney’s office. Lopez has been charged with a felony count and a misdemenor count for resisting officers, jaywalking, and smoking marijuana near a school.

“That’s just nuts,” Kremer said in a phone call Tuesday. “It’s based on the narrative presented by the police.”

Kremer said Lopez had been in the backyard of his home in a residential neighborhood before an SAPD patrol car drove by and officers asked him to approach the vehicle. Lopez, who was on probation, was “doing really well” and helping his dad with construction, according to Kremer. He said Lopez complied with the officers and approached them down the street, adding that as far as he knows, there are no schools nearby.

He also said he doesn’t understand why officers later applied a spit mask, since Lopez was only covering up from being hit in the face and head.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilmember Jonathan Hernandez apologized directly to Lopez. Hernandez also demanded that Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer drop the “bogus charges” and called for charges against the officers.

Councilmember Thai Phan, an attorney by trade, said she regularly reviews police body-cam footage as part of her day job. She directly addressed audience members at the council meeting holding “fire these officers” signs, explaining the constraints on terminating an officer under the Peace Officers’ Bill of Rights. She said the state “needs to change POBAR” and committed to personally filing a records request to force the records’ release.

Phan also praised the decision to use a third party for the internal affairs review.

The unanimous vote followed roughly three hours of closed-session discussion that Councilmember Jessie Lopez said at times became heated.

“Some of us even yelled at each other,” she said. Lopez added that what she saw in the video “infuriated” her and that it was difficult to hear the cries of family members in the background. She said there was “absolutely no reason” for the situation to escalate the way it did.

Kremer said he is asking the court for the body-worn camera footage. A pretrial settlement conference is scheduled for Oct. 13.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.