Morgan Hill resident arrested after minor accident Sunday
Morgan Hill – The charges piled up rapidly after a Morgan Hill man was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car early Sunday morning, according to Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe Sampson.
“He became agitated and began yelling at the officer, yelling derogatory things, kicking around in there,” Sampson said Monday.
Thomas Piedra, 18, was arrested for driving under the influence after running into several parked cars in the parking lot of the Jack in the Box restaurant at the corner of East Dunne Avenue and Condit Road. MHPD Officer Greg Dini was driving past the restaurant, Sampson said, on his way to another call when he heard a loud crash and decided to investigate. He saw Piedra coming out of the drive through and crash into another car.
“He and a couple of other suspects were in the car, and Officer Dini suspected something was wrong and ordered them out of the car,” said Sampson. “He complied at that point, as did the others. He had minor injuries, a swollen nose and a slight abrasion.”
Once Piedra was cuffed and put in the car, however, he became extremely combative, Sampson said. He urinated in the patrol car, he managed to shift his cuffed hands to the front of his body, and he kicked out a window of the patrol car, badly damaging the door.
Officers had arrived to support Dini, Sampson said, and helped him get Piedra out of the patrol car to move to another patrol car with metal bars reinforcing the doors and windows.
“He was kicking the officers, swinging at them, now that his arms were in front of his body,” said Sampson. “The officers could not, obviously, get his arms back behind him, so they had to uncuff him to get him recuffed, and any time you have to uncuff someone who’s combative, that just gives them more opportunity to fight.”
It took four or five officers, Sampson said, to hold him down on the trunk of the car. He then began spitting in their faces, and officers had to put a “spit shield” on him, a mesh mask that allows the wearer to breathe but won’t let them expectorate.
Once he was at the police station, he began to fight again, and officers had to immobilize his legs with a special wrap.
Eventually, he was taken to Santa Clara County Jail, Sampson said, and he began to fight again when he was uncuffed, but once he was turned over to the jail, they likely subdued him quickly.
“Typically in the jail, they take control of people swiftly,” he said. “They can’t let things get out of hand there.”
MHPD officers did not use a taser on Piedra, Sampson said, because he was cuffed and had been drinking.
“The effects are being studied of using it on someone who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or is restrained and over-stimulated,” he said. “Our officers will exercise as much discretion as possible without getting themselves or the public hurt.”
Piedra was booked on charges of driving under the influence, driving without a license, vandalism (likely a felony), resisting arrest and battery on a police officer.
