Lance McDaniel: Story #1

Lance McDaniel:

Story #1

Lance McDaniel, an Elk Grove Peace Officer and Del Campo High grad, is a lying POS.  He totally lied and caused me tremendous pain.  Here is the story; what do you think?  Lying POS or great upstanding officer you would love to patrol your neighborhood…you be the judge…

Officer McDaniel states:

“I was traveling north on Laguna Springs Drive.  I observed a white Toyota Camry traveling south on Laguna Springs Drive.  As the vehicle passed me I slowed and watched it.”

He had every intent on stopping me even though I had done nothing wrong.  All the other excuses were made up after the fact.

“The vehicle made an immediate and evasive right turn into an office complex located at *******.  When the vehicle made the turn it did not use its turn signal. “

 He added the “immediate and evasive right turn” after to pad the report and justify his reckless and illegal behavior and build a story that did not happen.

“Based on my training and experience, I felt this behavior was suspicious for the following reasons:

I have worked for the city of Elk Grove for over 7 years.

I have been a sworn officer for 4 years and 3 months.

Of these 4 years and three months, I have worked this jurisdiction of the city (Beat 2) as a sworn officer fo r approximately 3 of those years and am familiar with the businesses which are occupied and which have janitors working during the night,

I know this is a nearly vacant business complex.

I know that this complex is not open for business during this time of night.

I know that there has been a recent rash of copper wire thefts from street lamps and parking lot lampswithin the city of Elk Grove.

I know there have been recent burglaries to businesses which involved a white vehicle which had been captured on surveillance tapes.

Based on these factors, I found it suspicious the vehicle made an immediate turn as it passed me to go into a vacant business complex at this time of night. 

I made a U-turn and turned off my vehicle’s headlights.  I blacked out and watched the shite vehicle for a moment. 

From my vantage point, the vehicle sat in the western portion of the parking lot facing a western direction.  The vehicle was also parked directly next to a parking lot light.  The vehicle eventually turned its lights off.  I watched as there appeared to be movement inside of the vehicle.”

I did not park until I was prompted by the spotlight  nor were my lights off.  I cannot turn my car’s  lights off unless I turn my car off. My car was still running.   I pulled over to use my phone and Officer McDaniel followed me with his spotlight on my vehicle.  I did not know if it was routine patrol/security or something else.  I continued to drive to get out of his way and parked when he continued to follow me.  He got out of his car and I asked him if I had done something wrong and he told me that I looked suspicious.  Starting to feel uneasy, I asked him again as he looked all around my car. He then went to inspect my tags and the items in my back seat.   I never received my registration sticker so my outdated ones are displayed.  Officer McDaniel told me that my tags were expired and I told him that they were current, I just never received the sticker.  He continued to look around my vehicle and I am getting concerned because I still don’t know what this is all about.  He then spotted a bottle of Trader Joe’s Green Tea on a blanket in my back seat, turned on his recorder because he thought he “had me”, he thought he had a story that he could piece together...he said:

Officer McDaniel:  Okay, are you just back here drinking ‘cause I saw you hiding the bottle behind you.

Me: You did not see me hide no bottle…what…

I did not have a clue what he was talking about.  He will claim to have witnessed me hide something several times throughout his report and all of these stories are different.  

Officer McDaniel: Sure I did

Me: Now you are trying to find something.  You did not see me hide…

Officer McDaniel: I see the bottle right there and I saw you sticking your hand…that bottle there

Officer McDaniel then gestures for bottle of Green Tea in back area of my car…I turn around to look and see what he was talking about.  The bottle was in plain sight and was not hidden or partially hidden. I also never reached for the bottle.  I knew I was in trouble because this officer claimed to have witnessed me reach for what he thought was alcohol.  He was building a fictitious case. I did not know what to do next so I decided to dial 911 because now I am dealing with an officer who was wrong (probably had a bruised ego because I challenged his lie) and did not get what he wanted: a reason to arrest me.  This is how he reported the exchange:

“As I got closer to the car, I could see that the car was completely filled with what appeared to be junk.  The vehicle was filled on the front and back seats almost all the way to the top with junk.

That is funny because my things were covered with a blanket so to call my things "junk" when he did not know what I had in my car  just showed his apparentn disdane for me. 

As I cautiously approached the vehicle, I stopped at approximately the rear driver side window.  I asked the driver what she was doing back here.  She stated, “I’m not fucking doing anything wrong.”  I explained to her it appeared she had expired registration on the car.  She yelled, “My registration’s not fucking expired.  You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”  I asked her to place her hands on her steering wheel and she initially did not comply.  I explained to her I thought it was suspicious that she was back here this time of night.  She said, “But I’m not doing anything wrong.”

This exchange never happened.  Why would I pull over and roll down my window to curse him out? 

OF-1 said, “You don’t have any reason to be back here talking to me, leave me alone.”

I explained to her that as police officer part of my duties are to investigate suspicious behavior.  I told her my observations of her parked in this area at this time of night and near businesses known to be closed are something which I consider suspicious and this fact coupled with her registration tags required me to take further enforcement action and investigation. 

Alston then removed her hands from the area which they were concealed and placed them on her steering wheel…” 

Notice as he reports how aggressive and verbally abusive I was.  It is totally inconsistent for someone to pull over and crack their window to only verbally abuse an officer.  He continuously padded the report with these buzz words to make me out to be aggressive just because that is the type of person he wants the reader to believe I am.  He called my belongings junk several times and made me appear on paper to be a low-life.  The junk he referenced was my guitar, my laptop, my printer, stereo, gps, Wii, other things, and 2 large duffle bags filled with my clothing.  Nothing in my car was junk.  And my car was neatly packed and covered with a blanket so he did not know what was in my car.

Officer McDaniel also wants the reader to believe that he allowed a verbally aggressive person who he deemed suspicious to have their hands concealed near the center console area.  Also, remember he said he saw me “hiding the bottle behind [me],” now the story shifted to me hiding something near the center console in his written report.

“I asked her to produce her registration so I could verify the validity of her registration.  She began to grip her steering wheel and stare straight ahead.  She was moving her knuckles back and forth on her steering wheel .  She was squeezing so hard her knuckles were turining white.”

He never asked me for my license and registration.  He asked me for my name and I did not answer him.  I still did not know what was going on.  Here is an obvious example of Officer McDaniel’s failed attempt to pad the report and paint me as this aggressive person.  He says I began to grip the steering wheel and was squeezing so hard my knuckles were turning white.  I have dark skin and my knuckles cannot turn white no matter how hard I squeeze.

“I asked ****** again for her identification.  She just stared straight aheas.  Since I could see both of ******’s hands, I repositioned towards the A-frame of the vehicle so I could have a better view of the front of her body as well as some areas behind where she had her hands concealed.  From this vantage point, I saw the top a green bottle, which also had a gold colored cap at the top.  This portion of the bottle resembled what I know to be a “ Mickey’s malt liquor.”  I asked her if she was back here drinking because I saw a bottle.  She became irate and started yelling at me that  it was just green tea.  She reached back in a rapid fashion and grabbed the bottle.  She showed it to me and it was indeed green tea.  I explained to her that is why I asked herif she was drinking back here because the bottle appeared to be an alcohol bottle.  ****** began to get very belligerent with me.  I asked at least three more times to produce her identification and she refused and said, “I’m not doing shit wrong.”

I never yelled nor was I belligerent and irate.  He just accused me of reaching for a bottle he thought was alcohol and I challenged his lie. This is all on the audio, yet, he is still allowed to lie in his report and his lies go unchallenged by the District Attorney/ City Attorney for Elk Grove Jennifer A. Alves, Suzanne E. Kennedy, and Susan Burns Cochran.  They bought into his story. 

I knew I was in trouble, I was alone with this officer who clearly had it out for me.  I decided to call 911.  When I grabbed my phone, Officer McDaniel tried to open my locked car door.  He never asked me to exit my vehicle before he attempted to open my car door.  I was being attacked for no reason.  I was not about to get out the car to get beat-up by an officer.  He then continued to reach is hands in my window to unlock my car door, I relocked it asking him to “please stop.”  He then gestured for his gun and I asked him if he was going to shoot me.  Here is what happened:

Officer McDaniel: Okay, get out of the car

You can hear him attempt to open my locked car door when he saw me attempt to use my phone. 

1:23

Unlock your doors and get out of the car.

Me: what did I do wrong…please don’t reach in my car.

Officer McDaniel: Get out of the car

Me: Please stop it

Officer McDaniel: Get out of the car

Me: Please stop it

A belligerent person does not say "Please stop it"

Officer:  You need to get out of the car right now

Me: what…you’re going to pull out your gun on me (he has his hand on his gun not his Taser)

1:36

Officer: No I am going to pull my Taser out because you’re …

Me: well pull out your Taser then …gosh…I’m not bothering anybody.

You can hear the dings from me turning my key to the on position so I can roll up my window until help comes.  I am also still trying to dial 911; I had 2 passcodes on my phone (one for the phone and the other for my sim card) that I had to get through.  No other officers were on the scene as he reported.  I rolled up my window to prevent myself from being attacked until "help" arrived. 

1:38

(my window breaks...it takes 2 seconds for my window to break...he ripped out my window with 2 hands)

Officer McDaniel: Get out of the car now!

Me: Please stop it

Officer McDaniel: Get out of the car now!

Me: Please stop it

Officer McDaniel: Get out of the car

Me: Please stop it

Officer McDaniel: Get out of the car

Me: Please stop it

This is how Officer McDaniel reported the incident:

“0056 hours:  I observed Officer Benitez and Officer Morrow arriving at my location.  As they did so, ****** also observed them.  She then turned her key to the on position and began rolling up her driver side window.  Knowing I was now going to be detaining ****** for her failure to identify herself to me as well as her improper display of vehicle registration I tried to open her door by using the handle.  However, the door was locked.  The window continued to roll up and I reached inside her vehicle through the still open window to unlock her driver’s side door.  As I was doing this I told her repeatedly to get out of her car.  She refused and continued to try to roll up her window.  She used her hands to block the locking mechanism inside her car. 

Knowing that it would be very difficult to remove ****** from her car while her doors were locked and the possibility of her starting her car to flee detainment, I continued to reach inside of her car to try to unlock her doors.   I reached both of my hands inside of her car.  She slapped my left hand away from the lock and grabbed my left hand.  My flashlight was in my left hand and she began pulling on it.  While this was going on, she continued to roll the windows up, pinching my arms at the top.  I was able to pull my hands away from her grasps and yanked them out the window.  As I did so, my flashlight became trapped in the car and the pressure of my arms pulling on the window caused the driver side window to break. 

****** then grabbed her cell phone and began calling someone.  She was telling whoever was on the other line that she was with the police and they had broke her window.  She also began giving the location of where she was at.  Fearing she was summoning persons to help.  I reached in and knocked her phone away from her.  She again picked up the phone and began screaming and began telling the person on the other line what was going on.  I continued to be fearful of other persons arriving at the scene and causing more problem."

I had done nothing wrong so I had no reason to believe I was going to be arrested.  He states that I began to roll up the window to prevent myself from being detained, but that is not the way it happened. I rolled up my window to prevent myself from being attacked (as you can hear in the audio). He gestured for his gun prompting me to try to protect myself.  When I started to roll up my window, he pulled it out shattering it into several pieces. In the audio, it takes less than 2 seconds for my window to break.  He claims that I was pulling his arm and attempted to roll it up in my window.  THAT NEVER HAPPENED!  Not only does he have leverage on me because he is standing and I am sitting, I don’t have the space to pull his arm.  Also, it is very hard to roll up the window, have the phone in my hand, and pull on his arm.  Officer McDaniel has a hard time telling the truth.  There are also pictures to the cuts on his hands from pulling out the window he denied pulling out.  There are no pictures of the pinched arms he claimed to have had. 

 

This is what Officer McDaniel stated in his report:

“As a result of my arms being rolled up inside of Of-1’s vehicle and my efforts to remove my arms from her vehicle, I suffered several lacerations to both my left and right hands.  My index pointer fingernail on my right hand was bent back causing it to bleed.”

The city attorneys bought this story... 

 

Officer McDaniel will state several times in his report that he attempted to reason with me.  The audio recording does not show any reasoning whatsoever.  It does show me trying to reason and talk to an officer on 2 separate occasions.  Officer McDaniel’s  goal was to find me guilty of a crime, not find me innocent and to reason.

Now Officer McDaniel is building all of the reasons why I deserved to have my hair pulled (which is not an approved restraint...that was an act of rage) and be forcibly detained:

 

“ I told her again that she was being detained because she was refusing to identify herself.  I put ****** in an approved left arm twist lock in an effort to gain pain compliance to get her to exit the vehicle peacefully.  She continued to refuse.  ****** said she just wanted to talk to Officer Benitez.
(I asked to talk to an officer...that is not a refusal but an attempt to find out what was going on, they ignored me and continued to pull on me)  Officer Benitez grabbed OF-1’s arm and also placed her in atwist lock.  ****** continued to refuse to get out of the car.  Eventually Officer Benitez and I were able to pull ****** and remove her from the vehicle.  As we removed her, she went to a standing position.  She refused to place her hands behind her back to be handcuffed (I was never asked or instructed to place my hands behind my back). 

After several minutes of attempting to reason with ****** so that we could place her in handcuffs and detain her in the rear of our patrol vehicle, she continued to refuse (this never happened.  They still lie evern when there is an audio recording).  There fore, the decision was made to forcibly place her in handcuffs.  Officer Morrow grabbed ******’s left arm and Officer Benitez grabbed ******’s right arm.  Each of them applied twistlocks on ****** in an effort to get her handcuffed.  From my vantage point, I wantched as ****** continued to turn her body to the left and right and tried to pull her arms away from the officers’ grips. (the audio tells a different story.  There is no struggle...I was never instructed that I was under arrest or to place my hands behind my back.  My hair was pulled out of pure rage and hatred) 

Prior to this I observed the following:

I attempted to reason with ******.

****** had assaulted me.

Officer Benitez attempted to reason with ******.

****** refused to comply with Officer Benitez’s reasoning and continued to get more and more belligerent. 

****** appeared to be 6 feet 2 inches in height.

****** had not been searched.

****** had not identified herself and I had no way of knowing if she was a wanted felon.

Her evasiveness caused me to believe she was involved in undetedctd criminal activity.

The area where this was occuring was a dimly lit parking lot.

The area was away from the main street and other officers were having a difficult time locating me.

******’s keys were still in her car and the driver sied door was still open, which made ready access for her to jump back into and possibly start her car and flee the scene. 

******’s car was filled nearly completely up with junk.

None of this junk had been searched

It would have been possible for ****** to have any number of weapons concealed in her vehicle.

I had observed the handles of a pair of scissors in the middle console, which was where ******’s hands were concealed when I inititally made contact with her.

****** refused my and other officer’s lawful commands to identify herself, and exit her vehicle.

****** stared straight ahead and gripped her steering wheel and refused to answer questions regarding her identity.

Due to the numerous factors listed above, I was in fear for my safety, as well as the safety of Officer’s Morrow and Benitez, I grabbed ******’s hair and pulled her forward to the ground.  Once on the ground, she was placed in handcuffs without further incident.”

I was never instructed to place my hands behind my back and I was never told that I was being arrested (as shown on the audio recording).  I am 6 feet tall and that is not a valid reason to assault me.  They also used the word belligerent several times in the report when describing my demeanor and it is not true.  The audio recording proves this.  Also, at this time, I am surrounded by several officers who are armed with several weapons.  I was standing near my trunk area not near the driver side door.  I never attempted to resist arrest, I was never told I was under arrest.  Officer McDaniel came out of nowhere and grabbed me by my hair and yanked me to the ground.  That was an act of rage, not fear as he tried to report.  I also had on my gym clothing of tights and a t-shirt.  I had no pockets and it was impossible to conceal a weapon with the attire I was wearing.  Here are the other two officers reasons why I deserved to have my hair pulled and yanked to the ground: 

Officer Benitez:

“****** finally exited the vehicle.  I grabbed a hold of her right wrist.  Officer Morrow grabbed a hold of her left wrist.  I attempted to put an arm lock control hold on ****** right arm.  ****** moved her hand away from my hold.  I asked ****** to calm down.  ****** was yelling, “Why are you jurting me.  I did not do anything.”  I asked ****** several times to calm down.  ****** was subsequently taken to the ground and handcuffed.”

Officer Morrow:

“Officer McDaniel advised me the registration was expired on the vehicle ****** was found in.  I then decided to handcuff ****** because she had been uncooperative and had not complied with our directives.  I grabbed onto ******’s left arm and placed the handcuff on her left wrist.  Officer Benitez grabbed onto ******’s right arm.  ****** then began to tense up her arms and pushed away from her body in attempt to avoid being handcuffed.  It was evident to me ****** did not want to comply with being handcuffed.  Officer McDaniel then grabbed ****** by her hair and pulled her toward the ground .  ****** was guided to the ground and did not impact the surface with a lot of force.  I followed ****** to the ground where Officer Benitez and I handcuffed her withou further incident.  ****** was then detained in the backseat of my patrol car.”

They cover for each other and tell different stories.  This is the way it happened on the audio:

Officer: We have her out of the car but she is still [complaining?]  (Inaudible)…supervisor…

Me: I just pulled up here a few seconds ago…What the fuck are ya’ll doing? I’m not doing shit wrong.  I didn’t bother anybody.  Alright, but you don’t break my car window…threaten to Taser me and pull me out…take my phone out of my hand.  I am not doing anything…  No I want to talk at the police station.  We can talk there.  I don’t feel safe with ya’ll.  I don’t feel safe.  I need to drive to the police station and we can talk there.  Could ya’ll please.  Could you stop it…please? 

This is when they start going through my car and belongings and I start getting really angry (I had been calm up until that point unlike the reports reads)…the thud in the background is me banging my hand against my trunk…this is when I start yelling.  I never yelled prior to this point…

Me: What am I doing wrong?  I ain’t do shit wrong.  What the fuck did I do wrong? You broke my fucking window…

Officer: well you’re doing that…

Me: what the fuck?  Why the fuck you broke my car window?

Officer: expired registration

Me: what the fuck

Officer: I am trying to talk…

Me: that’s not why…you pulled me over for no fucking reason.  I don’t have an expired registration…that’s a ticket…well give me a ticket.   You don’t pull me out of my car and break my car window.  Wait no…could you let me go…let me go…

They started grabbing on me.  Never once told me I was under arrest or to put my hands behind my back.  They had been grabbing on me throughout the entire event.  They showed no respect for me.

4:34

Officer: stop…I’ve had about enough of you…

Me: I didn’t even do shit…

 You can hear the defeat in my voice…not resistance as they allege.

Officer: you need to give your ID

Me: alright but…

Officer: I asked you 3 times

4:41

Officer: Down!

This is where Officer Lance McDaniel came out of nowhere and pulled me by my hair and yanked me to the ground.  There is no resistence or refusal to be handcuffed like the officers allege. 

4:45

Me: oh wow!

They did not have handcuffs out prior to this point.  You can hear the sound of handcuffs on the recording.

Officer: Down

Me: Okay, this is nice…let me the fuck go

Officer: relax

Me: no this is not…no this is not going to work…let me go…let me go…let me go…

Officer: (inaudible) 21 resist (???)

Officer: I just did

Me: I am being arrested for no reason

Officer: you have to relax…calm down…

Me: are you serious?  I am being attacked and you are telling me I am not stable…

Officer: calm down

Me: Are you serious?  Are you serious though? 

“****** was arrested for Obstructing  an Officer (148(a)(1)PC), and for Assault on a Police Officer (241(c)PC), and Driving While Unlicensed (12500 CVC).”

There is nothing more dismissive and disrespectful than someone tell you to "calm down" or "relax" when you are being attacked.  Was I suppose to just smile and take it?  Or was I suppose to say "thank you officer for pulling my hair and yanking me to the ground?"

Truth means nothing; I have always had a valid driver’s license and I have already discussed the assault claim.  As they had my car towed, the officers conspired on what they were going to charge me with.  Officer Morrow turned on his in-car camera after I was in his car and during a 20 minutes stretch of the video (at about 1:19until about 1:39:53) the officers turned their microphones off or the recording has been altered to delete this segment.  I believe that this is when they conspired against me.  I was going to get arrested that night regardless.  The officer was not looking to confirm innocent behaviors; he was trying to find suspicious and illegal activity.  It is impossible to communicate with someone who wants to find fault and a reason to arrest you as opposed to a person who is truly curious.  Just for the record, I have no criminal record.  I am a law abiding citizen."

All the Players:

Lance McDaniel  (158) Unit A21

Elk Grove Peace Officer

Jorge Benitez (184)

Elk Grove Peace Officer

Chris Morrow (118)

Elk Grove Peace Officer

Jeff Murray

Sergeant for Elk Grove Police Department

 

Susan Burns Cochran

City Attorney (SBN: 136268)

Jennifer A. Alves

Assistant City Attorney (SBN: 238723)

Suzanne E. Kennedy

Deputy City Attorney (SBN: 251339)

City of Elk Grove

8401 Laguna Plams Way

Elk Grove, California 95758

Phone: (916) 683-7111