On June 11th 2008 at approximately 9:15pm, I was laying asleep in my bed with my 6 month old baby. I woke up when I heard a voice yell sheriff. I jumped out of bed and exited my room. As I walked through my hallway I was confronted inside my house by approx. 5 officers in black attire wearing Kevlar vests. They had their guns drawn and flashlights out. It was very
dark in the house. I was completely surprised, shocked, and scared. They told me my front door was unlocked, and that they were pursuing a suspect who they believed may have ran into my house. They were all well inside my house in the entryway of the hallway. They asked if they could look to see if
someone was inside and I said please. They led me to believe that they had been chasing a perpetrator who had entered my home, and that my family and I were in danger. They asked me who was in the house and I told them myself and my two children. The officers had there guns up while they walked through the house. The first room that was entered was my son’s room, it was directly in front of were I had encountered the officers in my hallway. My son was watching cartoons and his light was on. I was extremely scared and
worried about my children’s safety. The officers spread through the house and began searching. I followed behind a couple of the officers who were
entering my room because my baby was in there in the bed. They told me to stop and wait in the hallway. I stopped in the hallway, but tried to stay looking because I was worried about my baby. One officer proceeded to ask me questions such as my name, birthdate, and drivers license number. They asked for the full names and birthdates of my husband and father in law, who were not present. The officers that entered my bedroom searched briefly and then proceeded into my garage through an entry door in my bedroom.
Another officer who I later learned to be Detective Joe Valencia approached me and asked if Brandon lives here. I said no. He asked if I know Brandon and I said I don’t think so. I asked if they had a picture of Brandon and he told me to hold on. He went outside to the squad car and took a picture of Brandon who was sitting in the back of one of the cars. He took the picture with a camera phone. The officer came back into the house and showed me the picture from his phone. I told him I did not recognize that person as
anyone I knew. He asked me if that person lived in my home and I said no. The officer began to walk away towards the back kitchen door. I asked if I should follow him and he said okay. As we got to the back kitchen door I could see that all of the officers were still searching the garage. They had already been in there at least a good 15 minutes, and it is not very large. I didn’t even think to ask why they were in there so long because I was still scared and in shock. Detective Valencia stayed with me at the door and
proceeded to make small talk asking me about my children and husband. He stayed with me a few minutes and then said to wait while he goes to see what’s going on. I waited at the back door while he went in to the garage and very shortly after, he walked back over to me with several other officers. He showed me a little girl’s clear purse that had bullets in it. He said that they found the purse in my garage. I told them I had never seen that in my garage or anywhere else and that the bullets did not belong to me. The officer said, “then what are they doing in your daughters purse” and I stated that it was not my daughters purse because I didn’t recognize it to be anything I had ever purchased for her, or anything I have ever seen her with. The officer told me that the bullets gave them probable cause to search my house. He asked me if I had any weapons in the house and I said no. The officers proceeded back into my house. I started to cry and asked them to please not scare my children. The officers spread through my house and
started to search I followed back to my bedroom and stood at the doorway so I could be close to my baby. The officers looked through all of my personal
belongings. They asked me to remove my sleeping baby from the bed so they could lift it up, so I did. The officers did not go back into the garage to search, but they had already ransacked it before they showed me the bullets that they allegedly found in there. I had a lot of bags of old clothes for charity and things like that and they had been emptied out and gone through along with many other things inside the garage that were searched through and emptied out. The officers finished their search and did not find anything. As the officers were finishing up Detective Valencia gave me his business card. The officers proceeded to exit my house, and as they exited, my mother and mother-in-law had pulled up. I guess one of the neighbors had contacted one of them and told them there were a bunch of police in my home. My mother pulled into the driveway first and my mother in law was right behind her. Before my mother in law could pull in the driveway the police rushed to her vehicle. My brother in law was with her in the passenger seat.
They opened the passenger door and pulled him out. My mother in law jumped out of the car and started yelling and screaming asking them what they were doing and repeatedly saying that she just pulled up. The officers patted down my brother in law and they took him over to the sidewalk and began questioning him. My mother in law continued to scream at the officers to leave her son alone and state that she just pulled up with him. She told the officers they were harassing them. One officer opened the pocket of his vest put his hand on his mace and told her “shut up or I’ll spray you like a dog”. I stepped in front of her and said don’t spray her. I told him you can’t talk to her like that. He continued to look past me as though I wasn’t even standing in front of him and repeated his comment several more times. Another officer walked over in what seemed to be an attempt to calm the
situation. I told the other officer that those comments and behavior were extremely unprofessional and uncalled for. I told him that my mother in law is
only concerned for her family and she doesn’t need to be called a dog, or told she is going to be sprayed like one. The other officer was very calm and it
seemed as though he did not condone the hostile officer’s behavior. My mother and mother in law proceeded into the house to check on the kids and I
followed behind them. My brother in law stayed outside and continued to answer the officer’s questions. My brother in law told the officers he knew who Brandon was and that Brandon knew my husband and was not a
perpetrator. After they spoke to my brother in law they let Brandon out of the squad car and left. After the officers left my brother in law came into the
house to make sure everything was okay. He told me that Brandon stated that he pulled up to my house and saw police cars in the back of my driveway near my garage. Brandon said he came to my front door to knock
and that is when he was approached by the officers. They took him and put him in the back of the squad car and then proceeded back to my front door. My neighbor, whom shares a driveway with me, also told me that the officers pulled to the back of my house, and were inside my garage before they came to my front door. When I was at the back kitchen door talking to Detective Valencia I also saw all of the police cars in the back area of the property. There weren’t any squad cars in the front of my driveway, or directly in
front of my house. After the officers left and I received this information from Brandon, and also my neighbor, along with my own account of things, things
just weren’t making any sense. I NEVER at any point gave any of the officers permission to search through my property for any sort of evidence or anything of that nature. It was never asked of me. The entire time I was under the impression they were pursuing a suspect and I was in fear of my safety, but now I don’t believe that was the case. I also discovered that the screen window in the front of my house had been removed and the window was wide open. I didn’t notice this during the commotion when the police were
in my house, especially because it was very dark. I don’t know if this is how they entered my home, but I know the window was not like that before hand. I looked on the card that the officer had given me and it said Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, and the address was in Compton. I was extremely puzzled, scared, and trying to figure out what just took place and why. I contacted Temple City Sheriffs Department and made a formal complaint. I filed the complaint with Lt. Jacobs. I told her that I was extremely concerned that the officers were in my house with their guns drawn, and I believe that they may have falsified information in order to search for whatever it was they were looking for. After I filed my complaint my husband arrived home. He contacted a Sgt. at the Compton station, Sgt. Edwards of Compton OSS. The Sgt. told him he would find out what was going on and call my husband back. When Sgt. Edwards called back approx. 30 min to an hour later my husband told him to speak to me so I could explain exactly what happened. He told me that the officers were pursuing a suspect who was Brandon. I said, “So the officers were pursuing Brandon, Brandon ran in my house, and the officers followed.” He said yes, and then I repeated
it very slowly as I was writing it down. It was very obvious by how I was repeating it that I was writing the information down. He quickly said, “No”, “That is not what I said”. He then stated that the officers were pursuing him, but that he did not say he Brandon ran in my house. I told him that now that I can think back on what happened it didn’t appear that the
officers were pursuing or chasing anyone.