‘Thought I’d Never See My Kids Again’: Black Bouncer Beaten by Off-Duty Cops After Stopping Domestic Assault. Deputies Allegedly Kicked, Punched, and Told Him ‘I’m a Sheriff’ During Brutal Attack
A Black man working as a bouncer at a bar in Camarillo, California, who stepped in when a male patron was allegedly pushing and choking his wife, got more than he bargained for when the man turned out to be an off-duty sheriff’s deputy with another deputy friend in tow.
After a violent altercation, he ended up with a concussion, neck injuries and a $1 million tort claim against Ventura County and the two officers, who were arrested for multiple felonies.
According to his claim filed with Ventura County on April 11, Jaiden Perkins, 25, was at the tail end of his shift at the El Rey Cantina around midnight when he observed some friction between a white woman in her late 20s and her husband. The woman was “hysterically crying” at a table in the back, where she was sitting with three men and another woman.
Perkins observed the woman and her female friend exit the bar and sit on a bench near the entrance, and he followed them out and asked if they were OK, and they indicated they were. It was closing time, and as he began moving chairs from outside to inside the bar, he saw the man approach the woman, who slapped him and said, “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again.”
The man, now identified as Ventura County Deputy Sheriff Dylan Davis, shoved the woman into the bench and began choking her, Perkins claims.
“Hey, man, you can’t be touching females like that,” he says he told Davis, who stopped choking his wife and told him, “I’ll f—king kill you,” and then hit Perkins with his left fist, striking his right cheekbone. Perkins struck back, knocking Davis to the ground.
Then he says Deputy Sheriff Anthony Malagon tackled him, and both Davis and Malagon proceeded to kick, punch and stomp him, until a bar patron pulled them off. Perkins grabbed another person’s phone and called 911.
“You’re not killing anyone, man. I just called the cops,” Perkins told his attackers, according to his interview with the Ventura County Star.
“You mean my buddies? I’m a sheriff,” Davis allegedly retorted during the beat-down.
Ventura County deputies responded to the incident and arrested both officers that night, booking Davis, 33, with suspicion of multiple felonies, including battery causing serious injury, inflicting injury on a spouse, using force likely to cause serious injury, and making criminal threats, as well as misdemeanor battery, The Star reported.
Malagon, 27, was arrested on suspicion of battery causing serious injury and using force likely to cause serious injury, both felonies.
Both men were booked into jail and later posted bail.
Capt. Robert Yoos, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told The Star in April that the case will be sent to the DA’s office for prosecution.
A statement from Sheriff Jim Fryhoff released on April 16 said, in part, “I want to assure the public and our community that the Sheriff’s Office takes this matter very seriously. “We hold our deputies to the highest standards of conduct; any violation of those standards will be addressed appropriately, without hesitation … as that is what both our community and our agency expect and deserve.”
Davis and Malagon were put on administrative leave by the sheriff’s office, which is conducting parallel investigations into their conduct through its Major Crimes and Internal Affairs bureaus. Both also had their peace officer’s licenses suspended by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Perkins was evaluated by paramedics and then taken by ambulance to Pleasant Valley Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with a locked jaw, loss of consciousness, concussion, head and neck injuries, his claim says.
He continues to suffer from daily head and neck pain, and due to his injuries and trauma, has had to leave his bouncer job, as well as two other physically demanding part-time jobs at a grocery store and as an Amazon delivery driver.
He’s still seeing a doctor as well as a therapist, and says he continues to have headaches and back pain. The father of two told KTLA he thought the two men were going to kill him that night.
“In the moment, I thought, ‘I’m never going to see my children again,’” Perkins said.
His claim seeks $1.06 million in damages — $10,000 for medical bills, $50,000 for loss of earnings, $500,000 in general damages and $500,000 in punitive damages. It accuses the county, Davis and Malagon of assault and battery, negligence and violations of the Bane Act, a state civil rights law protecting against coercion and intimidation.
Although the incident on its face “appears to be a private fight involving off-duty deputies,” the claim says, because the officers “asserted their official authority” during the encounter, that conduct invokes state and federal civil rights claims.
“They were engaged in behavior that would easily be described as hotheaded,” Maximiliano Galindo, an attorney for Perkins, told KTLA.
“I don’t think they deserve any inkling of mercy,” Perkins told The Star. “They didn’t give me any. It’s sad that it’s supposed to be ‘protect and serve,’ and I was the one protecting his wife that night.”
California law requires anyone seeking damages from a state or local government agency to file an administrative claim first, The Star observed. A lawsuit can only be filed if the agency denies the claim.
Alex Galindo, another lawyer for Perkins, said Ventura County appears interested in settling the claim and is scheduled to meet with him in a mediation session in June.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for an update on the case from Atlanta Black Star.