Vallejo police release video of officer’s 2018 baton strike that led to lawsuit

VALLEJO – Vallejo police released body camera footage last week from a 2018 incident when a Vallejo police officer struck a man repeatedly with a baton that led to a pending lawsuit against the city.

The video shows Vallejo police Officer Robert DeMarco strike Luis Trujillo-Lopez repeatedly with a metal baton while Trujillo-Lopez is on the ground yelling in pain.

But the video shows little of the events that led up to the incident, partly because DeMarco held his hand over his body camera before he started hitting Trujillo-Lopez. DeMarco and Trujillo-Lopez have conflicting accounts of who escalated the encounter.

According to Trujillo-Lopez’s lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, the beating left him with a fractured jaw, cuts, bruises, a concussion, and mental and emotional distress.

The incident happened on Oct. 28, 2018, when Trujillo-Lopez and his friend Kenny Santiago were informed that police were towing vehicles on Camino Alto. Santiago, who was homeless at the time, had parked his van containing all of his personal belongings in front of Trujillo-Lopez's apartment.

DeMarco was the only officer present. The lawsuit alleges that he became confrontational, threatening Trujillo-Lopez and holding his baton at shoulder height as if prepared to strike.

DeMarco told Santiago that he had five minutes to remove his belongings from the van before it was towed. Trujillo-Lopez and Santiago started pulling Santiago’s possessions out of the van, but after two minutes the driver started pulling the van off the ground. According to the lawsuit, when they asked DeMarco and the tow truck driver for more time, they started laughing.

DeMarco allegedly then pushed Trujillo-Lopez, causing him to fall backward onto the sidewalk. As Trujillo-Lopez tried to stand up, DeMarco beat him with his baton, targeting his head, face, arm, and body, according to the lawsuit.

A police report written by DeMarco acknowledges that he pushed Trujillo-Lopez over and struck him with the baton while was on the ground, but alleges that DeMarco had threatened to fight him first and had taken a fighting stance.

Trujillo-Lopez was arrested and taken to a hospital for X-rays. Hospital staff recommended Trujillo-Lopez be prescribed pain medication, but DeMarco allegedly refused to allow it, and he was not administered the prescribed medication once transferred to jail, according to the lawsuit.

Trujillo-Lopez was charged with resisting arrest and disturbing the peace, according to court records. Last year, he pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace and the resisting arrest charge was dismissed. Trujillo-Lopez’s lawsuit is still pending.

The suit isn’t the first against the city involving DeMarco’s use of a baton. Joseph Ledesma sued the department after a 2015 incident when DeMarco broke his arms in multiple places and fractured his shin while responding to a domestic violence call.

According to the lawsuit, Ledesma was in his truck attempting to tow a trailer away when DeMarco approached him while his partner, Officer Amanda Schwarz, went to speak with Ledesma’s wife.

DeMarco pointed his gun and ordered Ledesma out of the vehicle, the lawsuit alleged. The Ledesmas’ pit bull then ran through an open gate. DeMarco shot the dog with his stun gun and then struck Ledesma with his baton. The officers then arrested him.

Neither officer activated their body-worn cameras prior to the incident. The city settled a suit brought by Ledesma for $175,000 in 2019.