Ryan Gadison had just pulled into the driveway of his fiancee’s home when two cops pulled up behind him in a patrol car with lights flashing.
The Hemet police officers were part of a gang task force and began peering into his car with flashlights before telling him that they had pulled him over for not having a front license plate. One of the cops asked if they could search his car.
But the 33-year-old man said no, believing they had no probable cause. The cops responded by pulling him out of the car and handcuffing him.
The cops then handcuffed both his fiancee and her mother for doing nothing more but recording and asserting their rights to be free from search and seizure. They then began beating the family dogs who were chained up with their batons because they were barking furiously.
The incident took place on March 31, 2021 and despite the excessive violence inflicted by the cops, charges were never filed against the three victims.
On March 3, California attorney Toni Jaramilla filed a lawsuit against the Hemet Police Department on behalf of the family.
The lawsuit states that Gadison had just gotten off work and was driving his 2020 Dodge Challenger down the street to see his fiancee and children when the cops drove past him coming from the other direction.
Realizing the car was missing a front license plate, they made a u-turn and began following him, pulling up behind him with their lights flashing as he pulled into his fiancee’s driveway.
After they had pulled him out and began handcuffing him, the mother of his fiancee, Monett Hereford, 54, began recording from more than ten feet away in her front yard, separated by the open car door of Gadison’s Dodge Challenger.
But a cop walks up to her and began shoving her backwards, accusing her of “obstruction.”
“You’re violating my rights because you’re on my property,” Monett tells him as he was walking away.
The video shows him pausing at that remark and turning to look towards her as if wanting to beat her for pointing out the obvious truth but he continues to walk away.
But a few seconds later, another cop walks up to her and slaps the phone out of her hand and slams her against the car, handcuffing her tightly to cause pain and injury, according to the lawsuit.
The cops then start searching through Gadison’s car, claiming he had a suspended drivers license but found nothing illegal.
“Do you guys have a search warrant to be going through the car?” his 29-year-old fiancee, Mariah Hereford, asks.
The cops responded by knocking the camera from her hands and body slamming her. One cops jammed his fingers in her mouth and pulled upwards like hooking a fish, causing her to scream out in pain as the four children she shared with Gadison cried and pleaded with the cops to stop.
Police then turned to the two family dogs which were barking furiously and began beating them with their batons – even though they were chained up and posed no threat to the cops.
“I think they killed the dogs,” a woman recording from next door says.
Fortunately the dogs survived but were left traumatized and injured, according to the lawsuit.
According to the city of Hemet website, “the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force is committed to creating safe and secure neighborhoods free of violent crime and gang activity.”
But the video shows they were the ones acting like a criminal gang that night.
Below is an excerpt from the lawsuit:
DEFENDANTS’ outrageous conduct towards PLAINTIFFS included, among other things:
(a) forcibly removing GADISON from his vehicle, detaining and placing him in handcuffs, and roughly pinning him against his vehicle;
(b) swatting at MONETT, striking her phone from her hand; violently throwing her up against GADISON’s vehicle; placing her in severely tightened handcuffs; painfully shoving her hands unnaturally upward against her back with the objective of causing physical pain; having male officers needlessly and forcibly grab and probe MONETT’s vaginal area, rather than allowing a search to be performed by female offices; and roughly shoving MONETT into a squad car; and
(c) striking MARIAH’s phone out of her hand; knocking her to the ground; roughly grabbing her hair, yanking her head back and repeatedly slamming her face against the ground while yelling “shut the fuck up!”; having an officer hook his fingers under MARIAH’s jaw to yank her up from the ground, restricting her airway, causing her to choke and lose consciousness several times; then detaining and arresting MARIAH by placing her in severely tightened handcuffs, aggressively shoving her into a squad car and taking her to jail.
All of this HPD conduct occurred while four young children cried and screamed in agony, helplessly watching their mother, father and grandmother beaten and treated like animals, and their dogs beaten like their parents and grandmother. As PLAINTIFFS experienced the harm inflicted on them, they also felt helpless in protecting their children from the fear, harm and insecurity created by the spectacle of HPD officer engaging in unfettered acts of violence and excessive force.
Watch the video below and read the lawsuit here.
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