New bodycam footage released of Holmes Beach arrest
HOLMES BEACH, Fla. - An incident involving the arrest of a father and his adult son with autism on Holmes Beach has drawn concern from some members of the community.
The Holmes Beach Police Chief has reviewed body camera and dash camera footage from his officers who responded to the incident.
Chief Bill Tokajer says on Sept. 10, one of his officers who was on patrol got an alert from a license plate reader about an expired driver’s license.
According to a daily report by the police department, the officer made a traffic stop involving that car, which was driven by Orlando Diaz.
"His license has been suspended for almost 20 years," Tokajer said. "He’s been given multiple citations. He was convicted three times in the last eight months."
Tokajer says his officer confirmed that Diaz’s license was expired.
"So, the officer decided that Orlando was not getting the message," Tokajer said. "Mr. Diaz was not getting the message when he got a ticket, and he was continuing to drive, so he made the decision to make a physical arrest."
The Chief says Diaz’s son, Franciso Diaz, 30, got out of the car to help translate.
"Mr. Diaz asked his son to come out of the car and interpret for him, because he speaks little English," Tokajer said.
According to the report filed, the officer told Orlando that he was under arrest, and he started to handcuff him.
"They took the turn when the dad decided to get agitated and agitate his son," Tokajer said.
As the officer tries to handcuff Orlando, body camera footage shows him get agitated and cry out.
Francisco is then seen on the body camera video getting upset and trying to intervene.
"He pushes the officer, tries to grab the officer’s arm as the officer is trying to make a lawful arrest of the father," Tokajer said.
The body camera footage shows the officer pointing his taser at Francisco and tell him to back up, otherwise he would be tased.
Tokajer says Francisco’s mother, who was also in the car, was able to restrain him and get him back in the car, while Orlando was taken to the ground and placed under arrest.
"He needed to be taken to the ground because he was not putting his hands behind his back," Tokajer said.
The chief says two other officers arrived for backup, and went over to the family’s car to arrest Francisco for allegedly intervening in his father’s arrest.
"They asked him to get out of the car," Tokajer said. "He did. He tensed up and he put his hand up like this. The officer grabbed his arm. Officer Hurt grabbed his arm and did what’s called an arm bar take down."
Tokajer says Francisco fell onto the ground and rolled on his back. Body camera footage shows him flailing and grunting on the ground, as officers told him to roll over and put his hands behind his back.
"I don’t know that this was an intentional act, but the officer was struck by Francisco," Tokajer said.
Tokajer says Frnacisco hit the officer in the face.
He says the officer is seen on body camera footage tasing Francisco, while ordering him to comply and put his hands behind his back. He says they stopped tasing Francisco once he complied, and they handcuffed him.
Around the same time, the video shows Francisco’s mother frantically telling officers that he has autism.
"Had we known that, then even the grabbing the officer probably would’ve been handled differently," Tokajer said. "Here again, had we known he was autistic, we probably wouldn’t have used him as an interpreter, for one. And, we would have definitely asked him to sit back in the car before the officer went to arrest the dad."
Francisco’s attorney, CJ Czaia believes the tasing was excessive.
"And, when they were tasering him, they knew they should not have gone to that extreme," Czaia said.
Czaia says he still needs to review all the evidence and speak with witnesses and the officers involved.
However, he believes the situation could’ve been handled differently.
"The violence towards them, my God," Czaia said. "That's unconscionable to me. That's just unconscionable. It's not necessary. It's just not necessary. Is it legally permissible? Probably. Is it necessary? No."
Czaia also wants to ensure that it’s noted in the investigation that Francisco has an intellectual disability.
He says this wasn’t noted in the initial report.
"If you have autism or a problem, this is not unusual for the way the kid would react," Czaia said. "But, in my opinion, the problem is once you know, they should have handled it differently. There's nothing on the PCA that he's autistic, or claimed that he was or a problem."
Tokajer says he asked the officer to do a supplemental report to indicate they eventually learned that Francisco has autism.
While two officers were trying to arrest Francisco, Tokajer says body camera footage from the other officer shows him trying to put Orlando in the back of a patrol car after he was handcuffed.
In the video, you see Orlando start to fall into the seat and then onto the ground.
"Goes limp and falls to the ground," Tokajer said. "The Sergeant is trying to keep him up. He’s trying to put him in the car. He is not being compliant. He is just dead weight."
The Chief says his officer calls for EMS support.
"After he tried to put him in the car and couldn’t, he lays him down on the ground in a recovery position on his side, so he’s safe," Tokajer said. "The sergeant is steady, checking his pulse and watching for breathing. He’s breathing. He has a pulse. And the doctors, when he was taken to the hospital, said that they couldn’t explain the medical event."
Tokajer says cameras from inside the patrol car later showed Orlando without any apparent injuries or medical issues.
The chief says his officers responded appropriately in this entire situation and did not escalate the situation with Francisco.
"They never struck him, they never kneed him, they never kicked him," Tokajer said.
He says his officers did the right thing.
Tokajer says he’s also going to invest in additional training.
"We’re going to get some education for my officers with recognition of autism," Tokajer said. "We’ve done training before, but we’re going to refresh that."
Tokajer says there is an officer from another agency who is an autism specialist and is in Holmes Beach right now to assist with hurricane recovery, so that officer spoke with the Diaz family about how to navigate situations like this in the future.
The Chief also cleared up some confusion in the community, after he said he previously misspoke to a different news outlet about the incident.
"I had told them that when the officer went to the car, that the subject kicked them," Tokajer said. "When I told them that, I was confusing two incidents that occurred in the same week with the same officer. I had read significant incident reports. I didn’t see all the video, the body cam footage. There are 12 different cameras, so I looked at the body cam footage from the beginning. I saw the part where they went to arrest Orlando, and there was interference with Francisco. That was the end of what I reviewed at that time, because we’re preparing for storms."
Czaia also raised concerns about how long Francisco was in jail before he was released on bond. According to Manatee County jail records, Francisco was in jail for almost a month.
"He has a condition," Czaia said. "He should have been in front of a judge. They should have known. The judge should have known what was going on."
He argues there was a failure in the process for not having Francisco’s intellectual disability on record.
"So the next day, in front of the judge, the judge would be made aware that this is not just a standard case, a regular guy," Czaia said. "He has a problem. Nothing there. And they knew, and they didn't write it down."
Czaia says a Good Samaritan paid his $50,000 bond.
Francisco is charged with two counts of battery on an officer and resisting arrest with violence.
Orlando is charged with driving while his license is suspended or revoked and obstruction without violence.
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