A third Orange County sheriff’s deputy involved in the arrest of Mohamed Sayem, an intoxicated man pummeled on camera in 2018 by one of the deputies, is under criminal investigation for undisclosed allegations.
The announcement against seven-year veteran Blake Blaney was made in court Wednesday by a prosecutor during the Sayem case. A felony charge of resisting arrest with threat of violence was reduced Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and drunk in public.
Three of the four deputies involved in Sayem’s arrest, including the one who punched him, Michael Devitt, are under investigation.
Mohamed Zahangir Sayem was asleep in his truck, parked in an alley behind a Stanton bar, when he was contacted by Devitt and another deputy in the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 2018. In a drunken haze, Sayem was unable to answer Devitt, who asked for his driver’s license.
The video, taken by a police dash cam, shows the deputy allegedly pulling the 5-foot-11 man out of his vehicle and punching him until he collapsed. Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders has alleged that Devitt beat Sayam and then conspired with other deputies to make it appear in the official report that Sayem, then 33, attacked him.
At the time, then Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said the arrest had been by the book.
Another deputy involved in controversial Stanton arrest is under criminal investigation posted first on https://anaheimsignsorangecounty.blogspot.com
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