Tuesday April 6, 2010
Calif. D.A. Snubs Pro-Lifer’s Plea after Harassment by Off-Duty Officer
By Kathleen Gilbert
VENTURA, California, April 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a Ventura County pro-life witness complained that an off-duty police officer harassed and drenched him in water, the local district attorney has said that it will not pursue charges, although it has admitted that the harassment technically qualified as battery.
Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek broke the story of pro-lifer Todd Bullis and John Hixon, a Ventura County police officer and parishioner at the First Assembly of God Church in Ventura. In a video captured on the sidewalk outside church grounds, Hixon is shown taunting Bullis, spraying what was described by Bullis as “vinegar water” towards his face, and drenching him with a garden hose.
Bullis was displaying graphic abortion signs in a peaceful witness outside the church in an effort to urge the pastor to speak out against abortion, and to support the local crisis pregnancy center, which he said is struggling to stay open.
Yet, while admitting that the spraying technically counted as battery, Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten declared Wednesday that no charges would be filed against Hixon.
Bullis told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that, while the head of Internal Affairs at the police department has been very cooperative, he received a very different treatment from the district attorney’s office – which he called “snide and real short.”
Describing his conversation with Totten following the decision, Bullis said he attempted to explain his position, but was brushed off.
“I said, ‘Well, so what you’re telling me is I can go back to that church and there’s people walking in the church, I can spray ’em with water?'” Bullis told LSN. “And he goes, ‘Well, do you think that would be right?’ and I go, ‘No, I don’t think that would be right!’ And he goes, ‘Well, there’s your answer.’
“‘Well, I don’t think it’s right that that officer sprayed me with vinegar in my eyes and then hosed me down, either,'” Bullis said he replied. He said Totten responded, “Well, unless you have something else to add, then I guess we’re done.”
Totten was not available for comment Friday. However, Mike Frawley, the Chief Deputy District Attorney of Ventura County, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that the office “took the whole context of the situation into account” in making the decision.
“He got wet. That was it,” said Frawley, adding that “we file 4-5,000 felonies in this county and over 14,000 misdemeanors, and we don’t file a lot of cases that would be filed if we had the economic resources to do so.”
Frawley hinted, however, that Bullis was simply seeking publicity by pursuing the case.
“I saw the video, and he very much – this made his day – he wanted to get wet, he wanted to attract publicity, and he did get that,” he said.
Asked about the vinegar spray, Frawley claimed “the water bottles were aimed at the midsection of his body. … He didn’t get sprayed in the face. That’s false.” He also dismissed the potency of the “vinegar solution,” saying Hixon “was drinking out of” the water bottles used to spray Bullis that day. “You’re not getting completely accurate information,” he said.
Asked whether a vinegar spray in the face would increase the officer’s culpability, Frawley said, “We don’t deal with hypotheticals.”
Commander David Wilson of the Ventura County Police Department told LSN that the D.A.’s decision “has no bearing on our internal investigation.”
“Our internal investigation is moving just like it did the day this occurred,” said Wilson. He said the D.A.’s decision may have been significantly influenced by “how much time a case would take versus how much penalty a person would get.” The D.A., he confirmed, did not communicate with the police department before making the decision.
Bullis said he felt the decision “sets a really bad precedent.”
“It’s battery, but it also shut down what we were doing that day,” he said.
To contact:
Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten
[email protected]
Main office:
800 S. Victoria Ave.
Ventura, CA93009
805-654-2500