A violent altercation involving a deputy and a 23-year-old former teacher in a Whittier parking lot is under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Emmett Brock, a transgender man, claimed the deputy pulled him over in February without good reason and violently beat him in the parking lot of 7-Eleven in Whittier. Video of the confrontation captured on store security cameras was provided to NBCLA by Brock's attorney.
Attorney Tom Beck said Brock was driving home from his teaching job in Whittier when he displayed the middle finger to a deputy who appeared to be having a heated conversation with a woman on the side of the road.
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"As I passed by I flipped him off very casually, really not thinking anything of it," Brock said.
A patrol vehicle began following him, but Brock claimed the deputy never activated the vehicle's lights and sirens. The LA Times reported that paperwork provided to Brock indicated the deputy said he spotted an air freshener hanging from a rear view mirror.
"His claim for the detention is that he spotted my guy on routine patrol with an air freshener hanging from his mirror, as if that’s a legal reason to pull him over," Beck said.
Brock pulled into the 7-Eleven parking lot and got out of the car when he was approached by the deputy. Video shows the deputy slam Brock to the ground during a scuffle.
"He starts to punch me about 10 times and shoves my head down into the pavement," Brock said. "I don't think it was gender-motivated necessarily. I think it was just anger, shear rage that was perpetuated against me for flipping him off."
The struggle went on for about four minutes before Brock was taken into custody and placed in a patrol vehicle.
"It appeared he was about to walk away from the car and myself," the deputy wrote as part of an 11-page incident report obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "His rejection of my traffic detention and his apparent intent to distance himself from his vehicle further raise safety concerns. I know from my training and experience that those who possess contraband items inside vehicles commonly attempt to disassociate themselves from their vehicles when law enforcement is present."
Brock was booked at the sheriff's station in Norwalk, where his fingerprints revealed to deputies that he was transgender. He was asked to expose his genitals to determine which holding cell he should be placed in, Beck said.
"She says, 'Can you show me your genitals,'" Brock said. "I said, sure, and I unbuttoned my shirt and showed her my chest scars from my double mastectomy. And, she said, 'No, we're going to have to see everything.'"
Brock was booked on suspicion of mayhem, battery, resisting arrest and assaulting on an officer for allegedly biting the deputy and then placed in a female holding cell.
The sheriff's department said in a statement that it is investigating the claims.
"The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department takes all use of force incidents seriously," the agency said in its statement. "The Department is investigating the information and allegations brought forward by Mr. Brock and his attorney. Unfortunately, we cannot comment any further at this time due to the pending litigation in this matter."
The FBI has opened criminal investigations into violent encounters involving Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, including one in which a deputy punched a woman in the face as she held her baby. In another high-profile case, video of a confrontation involving Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies in a Lancaster grocery store parking lot June 24 is part of a departmental use of force investigation.
