A mother and her teenage daughter say a Chula Vista City Council candidate’s call to police led to the girl being handcuffed in her own home.
Yvonne Betancourt said that after she left her east Chula Vista home on June 11 friends of her daughter Oriana, 17, came over to spend the afternoon.
At the time one of the guests was arriving City Council candidate and former Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla pulled up to the Betancourt’s neighborhood to canvas for votes and noticed Patrick Charles standing at the Betancourt’s doorstep.
Padilla said he noted Charles, 19, leaning into the front door of the Betancourt’s home, as though he might be trying to force his way in.
Padilla said that moments after exiting his vehicle he could no longer see Charles and thought Charles might have unlocked the door or someone on the inside had let him in.
The council candidate said he walked the neighborhood for about 30 minutes and when he returned he noticed the
Betancourts’ front door jam had scrapes on it, the door was ajar and the front door lock was broken.
“So it looked, obviously to me, like somebody had forced their way into the house and I was very concerned that someone’s home was being burglarized or that someone in the home might be in trouble,” Padilla said. “And at that point I went back to my car and called the (police) and told them what I had seen.”
Betancourt said the distance from her front door to the sidewalk where Padilla may have been standing is about 25 feet.
Charles, a black man, is a friend of Oriana’s and along with his girlfriend Tayler Costello and a small group of others had been invited over by Oriana.
Padilla’s call to police prompted a response that brought five officers to the house.
Chula Vista Police Lt. Eric Thunberg said police entered the home because the front door latch was broken and the door appeared to have been pried open.
Thunberg said officers did not draw guns at the scene but rather they had their “guns out of their holsters” because earlier in the day there was an armed home burglary and the description of the man Padilla provided to police— a black male wearing a dark hoodie—matched the one of the burglary suspect.
Thunberg said a review of officers’ body camera video footage shows police did not point guns at anyone inside the house.
“It did not appear that guns were pointed at any body or anything like that,” Thunberg said. “Based upon the circumstances it sounds like guns—and it certainly would be justified—being out of their holsters. We had an armed home invasion earlier in the day, burglars we believe are to be armed, and so if we’re going to go in a residence and we don’t know the inside of it, it would be certainly appropriate for officers to have their weapons out and ready to meet a threat.”
Thunberg said Oriana and Costello, 18, were handcuffed and taken outside because they were not complying with officers’ orders. But Oriana said she followed all of the officers’ commands, who had entered the home without permission.
“As soon as I turn the corner (to see who was at the door), we see three big guns pointing at us and so then immediately I was scared,” she said.
She said she listened to officers’ commands and walked toward them with her hands up. To her surprise a female officer asked her to turn around and without explanation placed her and Costello in handcuffs.
“The officer didn’t say that I was arrested or didn’t read me any of my Miranda rights so I knew I wasn’t being arrested, but she didn’t explain to me as to why she was putting the handcuffs on me. I just didn’t want to argue (with the officers),” she said. “The whole time they just never told me as to why I had handcuffs on. It’s embarrassing because there were a lot of neighbors outside just watching.”
Thunberg said the decision to place someone in handcuffs is based on the circumstances of each incident and in consideration of officer safety.
Ultimately police on the scene determined no crime had been committed.
When Betancourt learned of what happened to her daughter and Costello she left a message on Padilla’s Facebook council campaign page days later.
“I am 110 % certain had this been a white male at our front door you would not have thought anything of it,” she wrote. “This was definitely a case of racial profiling!!!”
Padilla wrote in a separate post he called police because it appeared a crime had taken place.
“I called because when I came by the house a person was standing at the door for a long time like he might be trying to force entry into the house. He also brought attention to himself because he kept looking around as if to see if anyone was noticing him,” Padilla wrote.
Betancourt said police told her that video footage showed her daughter had, in fact, been complying with officer commands. She said she wants to file a complaint with the department because of their actions but was told she must do so in person.
She said she has not done so because she works until 5 p.m. and the department closes at the same time.
Betancourt said she moved to the area last September and the situation has left a bad image in the neighborhood.
“For the neighbors to see my daughter and (her) friend handcuffed, that just brings negative attention to our home and it was for no fault of their own.”
Betancourt is convinced it was a case of racial profiling that lead Padilla to call the police.
“To me Patrick was standing at the door waiting to be let-in I don’t see how any of his actions were suspicious,” she said. “There was absolutely nothing that I could see Patrick doing where he would be in the wrong. He was invited in my home.”
“That’s insulting for anyone to insinuate that,” Padilla said. Padilla said he saw suspicious activity and called the police.
Charles could not be reached for comment.
