Orange Senior Citizen Beating Update – OPD STILL giving Allen the Runaround.

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Admin
– May 3, 2021Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice, orange, seniors

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Update May 20 – until Vern has a chance to call Sgt McMullen, the update is in comments HERE)

UPDATE May 6

[From Editor Vern]  Sgt. Phil McMullin, the PIO for the Orange Police, contacted me yesterday.  This piece has unexpectedly had over 1400 hits, and apparently a lot of those people were upset enough to call the OPD and complain or inquire.  McMullin was withering: “What is this Orange Juice Blog, do you not fact-check anything people put there?”  It hadn’t occurred to me to ask a police spokesman whether or not my friend was lying or confused.  McMullin took issue with several things:

First he wanted to emphasize the quick response time the Orange Police had to Allen’s assault.  Check.  He also told me Allen is 64 years old, so not really a senior, so “senior abuse” is not a “thing” here, as it would be if this had happened next year THREE WEEKS FROM NOW!  He was most mad about the suspicion that Allen had written in parentheses that the camera had been set up right near the assault in order to market “bumfight” videos – McMullin thought the OPD were accused of being part of that, although that’s not how I read Allen’s sentence.  Anyway, he says, it was just a regular surveillance camera outside a nearby business, not part of any sinister conspiracy.  (So I deleted that sentence of Allen’s.)

The first thing he told me, though, was that the perpetrator WAS arrested, and has a court date, and that Allen should know that.  Well, first, I guess it comes down to different definitions of “arrested.”  Allen at Officer Harris’ urging filed a “citizen’s arrest,” Officer Harris handed the attacker some kind of ticket, and let him go.  Meanwhile other sources at the OPD are telling Allen that no court date is set yet, and Allen was given no kind of paperwork – maybe McMullin was misinformed. 

And Allen is being given the runaround by OPD bureaucracy:  Yesterday they told him the Police Report was ready for him to come and pick up.  THEN before he left, he got another voicemail, which he returned, and was told that whoever told him the Report was available was lying.  He had to go to the station and fill out a FORMAL REQUEST for it, which he’s now done, and they will get back to him in ten days. (It just occurred to me now – duh! – that they need time to make a better report, now that there’s so much attention on the case.) So now a ten day wait begins, for Allen to find out ANYTHING from the OPD. But he is not the kinda guy who will just lie down and give up…

Allen Saul, a friend of the blog, a retired senior citizen who plays guitar and writes satirical songs, is pretty pissed off at the Orange Police Department right now, and who can blame him?  Here, let’s let him tell his story:

Wednesday, April 28, I drove into the small strip mall at the NE corner of Katella and Glassell in Orange. I was there to meet one of the business owners to help him move some stuff out of storage into his shop, a small photo service called Eye Magic. I parked my truck and headed for the back entrance, approximately in the center of this group of businesses.

Near the end of the long alley at the rear of the units, some guy seemed to be doing something on a pricey, new, tall camper retrofit van. I walked by and got about 35 feet past him when he whistled. I turned around, as we were the only two occupants of this space, and he was gesturing for me to come over. I walked over and before I even asked him what he wanted, he gruffly asks me what I was doing here. I just told him.

At that point he got this weird look in his eye and screamed, “Get away from me!”  Given the abject terror in his eyes, he didn’t need to tell me twice. Without saying a word, I changed direction to give him a wide berth as I reversed up the alley toward my truck.

Next thing I know I’m getting up off the ground looking for the pieces of what were recently my new prescription sunglasses. He had run up and hit me from behind, knocking me unconscious. Then he started  kicking my body on the ground. I wouldn’t have known that were it not for the video.

By now his boss and some other employee had poured out of the back of their shop to assist the guy who had just attacked me. I told them all that I’m calling the Police and the attacker took off running.  He was gone when the Police arrived, but returned after awhile. The Police discovered a camera facing the attack location, tracked down the business with the recording, viewed the video, then told me that it corroborated my story. 

The officer, one S. Harris, asked if I wanted to perform a citizen’s arrest because “he wasn’t comfortable making an arrest based only on the video and witness statements.” [Holy shit!] I signed the complaint and the attacker was released immediately.  No Court date, so I’m a little suspicious of being slipped the salami by the cops re. the so-called evidence they purportedly collected.  [Correction 5/5 after talking to OPD – the guy WAS arrested and there is a Court date. – ed]

As a victim, this non-response to a brutal hate crime feels like the police’s passive-aggressive protest over the Chauvin verdict.  Seems to me there should be some happy medium between murdering a suspect over a $20 theft based on (get this) video of that “theft” and witness statements, while the same evidence is rejected as unworthy to even make an arrest for a brutal hate crime.

I didn’t think about this till later: Officer Harris clipped my license to his shirt facing out before going over to interview the perp. That intimidation attempt went right over my head.  My official address is in Orange, but since The Man let an ex-con go after fucking up my face, I live elsewhere.

The idea that thus guy asked me to approach him and then said he attacked me because he was terrified doesn’t add up. He’s half my age and twice my size. The guy that invited me over says that this guy is a nuisance and an ex-con and has been working for this Wraps shop for a long time. The owner knows he’s dangerous so he keeps him out back like a junkyard dog.

One half of the field of vision in my right eye is a black spot. And my broken wrist really messes with my ability to practice guitar. I have invested over 53 years in playing the guitar. It’s more important than an income source given my age. The inflection point in this situation will occur when Officer S Harris either presents the evidence to the DA or buries it.

The Orange Juice Blog has been steadfastly against police brutality, but isn’t there some kind of middle ground between that and letting the unprovoked beater of a senior go without even being arrested? We will be looking into this and updating the readers. – Ed

Allen in better days.

Update from Allen Tuesday:

Just got off the horn with the OPD. They say there is a Police report but they won’t release it to me.

First I simply inquired how to obtain a Police Report, and was told to come on down with a Federal ID and request it. Then I asked if that specific report ( referenced by the dr#) was actually available so soon after the incident and was told that it could not be released. Couldn’t say why, and wouldn’t say if or when that would change.

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About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.