SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Newly released documents show a now-former Sacramento County Sheriff’s sergeant was demoted and disciplined after arresting a man in his own garage, applying unnecessary force and saying “disparaging, unprofessional” comments to the man.
That’s all according to documents and videos released by the Sheriff’s Office after the Sacramento Bee launched an investigation into why those documents had not yet been made public.
The former sergeant is Brannon Polete. His superiors determined his words and actions on the night of Feb. 6, 2020 warranted discipline. The chief deputy even recommended Polete’s termination.
It started with a domestic disturbance call that evening. A woman and her daughter had left the home they shared with the woman's fiancé because he was drunk and belligerent, according to the report.
Deputies arrived for what's called a "civil standby" as the woman returned to gather some of her belongings and leave once again.
During the course of this, and after the woman left, the man opened his garage door and started yelling at the deputies, who were standing in his driveway.
By then, supervising sergeant Brannon Polete had arrived on scene.
Polete went to arrest the man, later telling investigators he did so because the man was drunk in public—saying, "he's standing in his garage door opening. I know case law, that's a public place. He came out to us. He confronted us."
But unbeknownst to the sheriff's officials at the time, the man had security cameras that showed the whole thing, including that the man stayed in his garage the whole time.
Keep in mind, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not use body-worn cameras back in Feb. 2020. ABC10 has reported on the department’s need for – and eventual adoption of – those cameras.
In security camera video, Polete is heard cursing at the man and calling him names, what one official calls in an internal report "outright wrong, disparaging, unprofessional, and humiliating."
At one point while being arrested, the man asked what crime he had committed.
In a social media post shortly after that night, he said, “I immediately ask, 'why am I being cuffed?' I am drunk in public, is what the first officer said. I am in my house! I'm in my house. So this is the kind of stuff that the people in the position of having a badge and the sergeant on this was the real joke, ultimately."
Sergeant Polete is also seen applying pressure to the man's ear after he was handcuffed, which internal reports determined was unnecessary.
In a March 2020 report by Chief Deputy Chet Mason on the responding deputies’ and sergeant’s actions, Mason recommended Polete be fired for all this.
The sheriff's office ultimately disciplined Polete with a demotion from sergeant to deputy, a reassignment to corrections for at least two years and 160 hours of unpaid suspension, according to the documents.
The 'Final Order of Discipline' document from then-Sheriff Scott Jones to Polete said that he, "on February 6, 2020, while on duty and responding to a call for service, exhibited egregious and unprofessional conduct during and following an arrest, including use of profanities, and disparaging and humiliating remarks. That you, after the arrestee was secured in handcuffs, applied pressure to the arrestee's ear and made an additional profane remark. That your actions as a supervisor were in the presence of subordinate officers."
ABC10 asked the sheriff's office about Polete's current status. A spokesperson directed us to submit a Public Records Act request to get that information.
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