Ventura County – Police work—to quote the film character Forrest Gump—is “like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”. Proof of that came on June 5th when Ventura County Sheriff’s Department deputies working out of the Thousand Oaks Police Department responded to a call for assistance by a motorist traveling on a major city thoroughfare.
According to VCSD Crime Prevention Bureau spokesman Sr. Deputy Edward Beauvais, Santos Mejia, 30, “became involved in a verbal argument with a family member” while driving through Thousand Oaks, at which time he called police…ostensibly for some official dispute mediation by local law enforcement personnel.
Pursuant to that call, Thousand Oaks PD deputies Stephen Egnatchik and Daniel Blanck soon pulled up behind Mejia’s vehicle, now parked curbside on the public street. The ensuing conversation among everyone at the scene apparently did not meet Mejia’s expectations, and “while trying to assist Mejia, he became increasingly hostile and threatening” to the point that he verbalized specific intent to kill Deputy Egnatchik. In the real world of law enforcement, that kind of language crosses the line from mere argumentation to felonious behavior worthy of arrest…which is precisely what followed.
But Mejia—by now undoubtedly regretting his decision to call for police help in the first place—refused to be taken into custody, and during the deputy’s attempts to restrain him he “broke free of the deputies’ grasp and attacked them”…another felony on his part. The ensuing melee saw Mejia inflicting “numerous injuries”, but the ultimate outcome saw Mejia in handcuffs and bound for jail, with both deputies reporting to Los Robles Hospital for treatment.
Mejia was transported to Ventura County Jail where he was booked on charges of criminal threats, battery on a peace officer, resisting an executive officer, and battery upon an offer and emergency personnel, with the unblemished complexion shown in his mug shot photo providing clear evidence of the considerable restraint shown by battered and bruised Deputies Egnatchik and Blanck.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
Read more:
VCSTAR: Thousand Oaks man accused of assaulting deputies
Citizens Journal: Two officers injured during arrest
EdHat: Deputies assaulted during arrest
