San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, Calif. — After months of investigation, Santa Clara County prosecutors dropped all criminal charges Tuesday against a 21-year-old Vietnamese college student whose violent and secretly videotaped arrest last year heightened tension between San Jose police and minority communities.
But the other half of the Phuong Ho arrest controversy remains unresolved. Will four officers face criminal charges for striking with batons and using a Taser on the San Jose State student who had been involved in a dinnertime altercation with a roommate? Prosecutors will not say. But a decision is expected soon, perhaps in days.
Ho had been charged with resisting arrest and brandishing a deadly weapon, both misdemeanors. But after a Mercury News story revealed the existence of a videotape of the incident, prosecutors reassessed the case.
“After a thorough and careful evaluation of the evidence, we have concluded that it is unlikely that twelve jurors would convict Mr. Ho of these offenses,” the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. “The decision to dismiss the prosecution against Mr. Ho stands independently of (the investigation into the officers).”
Spokesman Nick Muyo said the office would not elaborate on its decision beyond the news release.
Ho, who is in the process of suing police, told the Mercury News on Tuesday that he is still outraged and traumatized. But his first reaction, after Assistant District Attorney David Howe moved to drop the charges in front of Judge Thomas Hansen on Tuesday afternoon, was relief that he will not face deportation or jail.
“I think I can finally concentrate on my schoolwork,” said Ho, who is studying to become an actuary. “I’m a free man in a free country.”
Asked if he felt that he had done anything wrong, Ho said: “The only thing I did wrong was make my mom worry.”
Ho praised the prosecutors for their decision but said he still feels that the police officers who arrested him should face what he now will not — criminal charges.
Ho’s arrest, partly captured on a roommate’s cell phone video, increased tension between the department and some in the Vietnamese community, already upset over the police shooting of a violent and mentally ill man wielding a knife earlier in 2009.
The video shows police standing over a crouching and unarmed Ho in a hallway of his house, yelling at him to turn over to be handcuffed. One officer strikes Ho with a metal baton 10 or more times — at times swinging it with both hands — while another officer eventually leans in and uses his Taser. Ho then turns over and is handcuffed.
A Mercury News enhancement of the audio part of the video indicates that Ho was begging the police for his eyeglasses, which had fallen off.
Within its grainy video, screams and the loud thwacks of the baton some in the community saw a dramatic example of their concerns over aggressive police practices in San Jose. The video also contributed to change. Police have announced an effort to rework their internal system to track officers’ uses of force and to create internal panels to review force arrests and policy. An independent city task force was also created to review SJPD uses of force.
Ho’s Sept. 3 arrest came when police responded to reports of an altercation at an apartment shared by a group of roommates.
When officers arrived they learned that Ho was upset with his roommate over accidentally spilling soap on his dinner steak. At one point, police were told, he threatened his roommate with a knife.
Police reported that Ho was resistant, did not follow orders and that he kicked at them as they tried to arrest him. And the student was promptly charged.
Nearly two months later, the video surfaced.
Along with the arrest, a separate part of the video seemingly shows Ho’s alleged crime: He is shown arguing and bumping into the roommate and later he picks up a knife and says something like, “In my country I could kill you.” Ho then drops the knife, and some roommates laugh. One later called the police.
That roommate later videotaped the arrest, selling it to Ho’s lawyers. The Mercury News posted the video after showing it to police, who promptly launched a criminal investigation and put the officers on administrative leave.
Police declined to comment Tuesday.
But Terry Bowman, the lawyer who represents Kenneth Siegel — the officer who struck Ho at least 10 times with his baton — said: “The officers acted in good faith and the DA’s office made the decision they felt was appropriate. Rules regarding prosecution are different from rules of arrest. Officer Siegel looks forward to the DA’s acknowledgment that he did nothing wrong.”
Copyright 2010 San Jose Mercury News