MESA, AZ — The Mesa Police Department is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit after multiple officers knocked a man unconscious during a violent arrest at his goddaughter’s quinceanera.
The lawsuit filed by Daniel Barraza named eight Mesa police officers, including Chief Ken Cost.
“Daniel was wrongly and maliciously charged with a crime in order to cover-up these Officers’ improper actions,” wrote attorney Jocquese Blackwell in legal filings. “It is also evident that the City of Mesa Police Department has a ‘warrior’ type culture of strike first to gain control of the situation.”
Blackwell continued, “(The officers) clearly adhered to Mesa PD’s known culture of violence towards citizens of Mesa and violated the Mesa PD’s own policies and procedures. Additionally, their conduct violated notions of common sense and fundamental human decency.”
A Mesa police spokesperson declined to comment on the case because of the ongoing lawsuit but confirmed no officers were disciplined or investigated for their actions.
Watch the body camera footage in ABC15’s report in the video above.
On October 2, 2022, officers responded to an “unknown trouble” call at a Mesa event hall where a man claimed he was punched by Barraza during a 15-year-old’s birthday celebration, records show.
Body camera videos obtained by ABC15 show multiple officers walking up to Barraza and surrounding him to ask him what happened.
One of the officers, Rudy Monarrez, asks him if he’d like to take a seat and talk about what happened.
Standing with his arms crossed, Barraza turns and tells Monarrez in broken English, “I don’t need to fight. I don’t need to sit. What do you need from me?”
Monarrez then suddenly pushes Barraza with two hands and a pair of other officers throw him to the ground. While on top of Barraza, the three officers repeatedly punched, kicked and kneed him in the back and head.
One of the officers also tasered him twice.
The video shows the strikes knocked Barraza unconscious for several seconds.
Before approaching Barraza, the officers didn’t know that his goddaughter and other underage girls claimed an uninvited drunk man was touching them inappropriately on the dance floor.
Following the arrest, one of the officers told Barraza’s goddaughter, “He should have told us what happened. He probably wouldn’t be going to jail.”
In legal filings, Barraza’s attorney claimed the officers lied about what happened to justify their use of force.
ABC15 obtained reports from multiple officers involved in the arrest.
The records show their reports do contain several false statements that are not supported by their body camera footage.
For example, Officer Monarrez’s report, he wrote, “Daniel was asked multiple times to sit down but did not comply.”
That’s not true.
Body camera footage shows he was asked once.
Monarrez also wrote, “Daniel again showed non-compliance by stating "I don't have to do shit.”
Other officers also claimed Barraza said, “I don’t have to do shit.”
Monarrez adds, “(Daniel) walked directly towards me and stopped just a few inches in front of me…Due to Daniel not complying with multiple commands to sit down, already showing aggressive behavior, and now within inches of me, I impact pushed Daniel to create separation so that he could be placed in handcuffs.”
Before Monarrez pushed him, the video shows Barraza said, “I don’t have to sit. What do you need from me?”
Barraza is never within inches of Monarrez.
“It is important to note that Officer Monarrez lied about Daniel’s actions as Daniel did not use any amount of aggression towards Officer Monarrez at any time prior to or during the unlawful attack,” Barraza’s attorney wrote in legal filings. “Based on the statements in Officer Monarrez’s report, he seemingly tries to conceal his wrongful actions by defaming Daniel’s character as he totally mischaracterized what happened during his encounter with Daniel.”
Monarrez previously received a written reprimand in another high-profile use-of-force case. A man named Robert Johnson received a $350,000 settlement after a 2018 arrest.
While Mesa wouldn’t comment on Barraza’s lawsuit, a department spokesperson said supervisors didn’t find any issues with the officers’ use of force.
“In all cases where use of force is used, the force used is reviewed through the involved officer’s chain of command,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “In this case specifically, there was not an internal investigation because the force used was not found to violate any Mesa Police Department policies.”
The spokesperson’s email did not answer ABC15’s questions about false statements in the officers’ reports.
Barraza said he suffered permanent injuries and neurological damage from the arrest.
He was charged with resisting arrest for his interaction with the officers and simple assault for allegedly punching the man accused of touching underage girls at the party.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the resisting arrest charges.
His simple assault case is still ongoing.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
