Feb 2016
Oakland Cops Implicated in Home Invasion and Assault
Oakland Cops Implicated in Home Invasion and Assault
Two Oakland cops may face criminal charges for allegedly entering a county probation officer's home and assaulting her while intoxicated.
Two Oakland police officers have been placed on administrative leave while the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, and private civil rights attorneys investigate the circumstances surrounding a home invasion and assault committed by at least one of the cops on December 7. One city source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack involved two Oakland cops who had been drinking heavily at a Montclair bar earlier in the evening. It's unclear if the officers were on or off duty when the incident occurred. But one of the people who was allegedly assaulted is herself an Alameda County probation officer. Motives for the attack are unclear, and details have only begun to emerge.
According to Oakland Police Department records obtained by the Express, the home-invasion and assault happened at about 9:20 p.m. on Monday, December 7. Oakland police officers Christopher Lorenz and Huy Nguyen were patrolling the Oakland hills area when a call came over the radio reporting a "home invasion robbery" that had just occurred, and that the suspects were still in the vicinity of the crime scene. Lorenz and Nguyen sped to the location, a house on a secluded cul-de-sac off Mountain Boulevard, just east of Highway 13 in the Leona Heights neighborhood. A police dispatcher relayed more information to officers Lorenz and Nguyen from the person who called 911 asking for help. The caller, Olga Palafox-Cortez, who is a probation officer with the Alameda County Probation Department, told an OPD dispatcher that two white men, roughly 25 years of age, "came into [her] house." One of the men was armed with a gun, and one of them "jumped on" Palafox-Cortez and "242'd" her. A "242" refers to Section 242 of the California Penal Code, which defines assault and battery, misdemeanor crimes that are punishable with imprisonment. According to the incident report, Palafox-Cortez and her husband, Nemesio Cortez, fought back against the intruders. Nemesio Cortez chased at least one of the assailants outside of the house, and the assailant was tackled and held down by the couple's neighbors until officers Lorenz and Nguyen arrived in a marked Oakland police vehicle.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oakland-cops-implicated-in-home-invasion-and-assault/Content?oid=4688444
