Video Shows Sonoma County DUI Suspect Being Roughed Up By Deputies, Taken To Hospital
SANTA ROSA (KPIX 5) -- A man is accusing the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office of brutality after he said he was seriously beaten by deputies in an incident caught on video.
The video was taken in at the Sonoma County Jail and was recorded by jailhouse staff. Esa Wroth had been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and things spiraled out of control when deputies brought him in.
After authorities said Wroth resisted arrest, the video showed deputies hitting the man and using a stun gun on him more than 20 times. Eventually, they could not book the man into jail and had to send him to the hospital.
"I honestly just didn't think it was ever gonna stop. I had no idea they were gonna stop, ever. I thought it was never gonna stop, I thought I was just gonna die," Wroth told KPIX 5.
"I couldn't breathe, I was like dying, literally," Wroth recalled. "Face down, handcuffed, being Tased, with two guys on my head and two guys on my legs."
"It's torture, it's absolutely torture," said Isaak Schwaiger, Wroth's attorney. "He was shocked with real electrical wires, over 20 times, and beaten savagely. He had both arms wrenched out of socket, covered in bruises and blood by the time they were done with him and had to take him to the emergency room."
Assistant Sonoma County Sheriff Randall Walker told KPIX 5, "It's not a pretty video, as force typically is not."
The video goes on for 29 minutes, right up to when Wroth was being loaded onto an ambulance. The sheriff's department said officers had to keep using a stun gun because he kept putting up a fight and that the amount of force was appropriate.
"It is a long time. The force lasts as long as the resistance lasts," Walker said. "The handcuffs didn't prevent him from biting, didn't prevent him from grabbing someone's Taser."
The man's lawyer is expected to hold a news conference about the video on Friday.
Wroth's trial on charges of DUI and assault charges is expected to begin in December.