San Andreas Judicial Branch [SAJB] Appeals Court "HERE FOR YOU | SAFE FOR YOU" |
DEFENDANTS PHONE: 203-1312
DEFENDANTS ADDRESS: Picture Perfect Drive 3
ATTORNEY NAME: Elizabeth Dyer
ATTORNEY PHONE: 309-5888
RANK: Police Officer II
BADGE NUMBER: N/A
ATTORNEY NAME: N/A
ATTORNEY PHONE: N/A
OFFICERS NAME: Sebastian Papadakis
RANK: Police Officer III
BADGE NUMBER: N/A
ATTORNEY NAME: N/A
ATTORNEY PHONE: N/A
CHARGES BEING APPEALED: WF01 - Assault with a deadly weapon.
DEFENDANTS STORY/OPENING STATEMENTS:
Bodycam footage
C.Morningstar's injuries.
(( bodycam RP ))
Statement
Alex Mathers.
I was at the Vespucci skatepark, comforting my crying girlfriend. A dark green Cypher (occupied twice) along with a dark green motorcycle (occupied once) first drove around our parked car (Dominator ASP, LP U02Z6588, parked on South Rockford Drive) for a while and then they both pulled up next to us, stopping for a moment before circling back to our car, where they stayed for a bit and briefly left. There was also a green Kamacho tagging along.
Later they returned, the dark green Cypher parking in a nearby street (coincidentally behind our house), and the two occupants ran back to our car where the person on the dark green bike was waiting for them. The two people who were previously in the car took to picklocking the parked cars - one of them our Dominator ASP, the other one went for the orange Cypher next to it. I pulled out my gun and ran towards the individuals in an attempt to scare them off, with no intention of shooting. By that time, the person picklocking the Dominator ASP had been successful in their effort and fled in the stolen car with the person on the bike escorting them.
The other occupant of the green Cypher (who was later identified as Chloe Morningstar) kept trying to steal the orange Cypher, even after I pointed a gun at them, making me think they were armed since they did not seem to be afraid of me at all. This was also supported by the fact that they were wearing baggy clothes. They kept picking the car at first, saying: “Are you a cop? Let’s go to my friends.” This gave me reason to believe that the individual would get back up in order to hurt me, since they also seemed to be gang affiliated (driving around with multiple individuals, similar clothing and paint job on their vehicles, wearing masks). Eventually they started running towards me. I yelled at my girlfriend to call 911. I must have warned the thief at least ten times during the whole interaction, telling her to stop, pointing my gun the whole time, but she ran towards me anyway. I shot at her because I was afraid for my life, especially considering the fact that she was not afraid of my gun and seemed to be gang affiliated, with her friends most likely still roaming nearby, waiting for her to pick the car. I only shot because I was sure she had a weapon on her and was certain that my life was in immediate danger. After being shot, she ran away and tried to get into her car, when I ran closer to her she jumped from a ledge onto the lawn behind our house (several meters high) in an attempt to escape, injuring herself from the fall.
My girlfriend was on the phone with law enforcement and I also tried calling them, they arrived before we got a response from dispatch. They have ordered me and my girlfriend to drop our weapons. There was no one supervising the injured person while we were being stopped by two PD cruisers, which must have taken at least two minutes, with the woman’s friends still hanging around and one female on a bike that kept roaming the street the whole time and who I believe was on scene when it happened. I later informed officer Styll that this woman was present and that she could be a witness (she was still going up and down the street at this point, trying to see what was happening to Morningstar), but he refused to acknowledge this. I directed the officers towards the injured person so they could provide BLS (Despite the fact that I am not the one who incapacitated C.Morningstar, she fell from a very high ledge and got injured, she only had what seemed like bruises on her body, pointing to the fact that she was wearing some sort of body armor and yet nothing was found on her person, another clue pointing at the fact that she was looted by her roaming friend, she had no bobby pins on her person, despite picklocking my car just a few minutes prior to that.). I showed my license and gave my gun to officer Papadakis and told him that I shot the person, fully complying with every demand the officers had. I was detained and the person (which we found out to be Chloe Morningstar) was taken to the hospital. My girlfriend’s gun was also checked and there were no signs of it recently being shot. After Morningstar got from the hospital, the PD took her statement first. She lied and said that she was waiting for her friends in the car and that I just randomly started shooting her. Despite this making no sense, the officers seemed to be dead set on getting me charged, purely based on the fact that when they frisked her, she had no weapons, disregarding the fact that her accomplice could’ve easily taken those off of her before she was frisked since no officers were around. Then I told the officers vaguely what happened. I tried asking if I could provide a full statement but officer Styll denied me that right, saying that I’ve already told them enough (they based everything on a few snippets gathered when waiting for MD supervisors to answer on department radio, since they were already set on charging me ever since they frisked Morningstar). They also never asked my girlfriend for a statement even though she witnessed the interaction. The officers later searched Morningstar’s car and found two illegal firearms in there. This was on top of the multiple felonies she already had in the past two days. Despite this, the officers decided to charge me with assault with a deadly weapon, solely because of the fact that Morningstar did not have a weapon on her at the time of the frisk even though I’m pretty certain she was armed when I shot her and the weapon could’ve ended up anywhere, which the officers couldn’t have known since they didn’t perform a search. The officers never searched the area for any weapons Morningstar could have easily tossed away, didn’t try to investigate who the other individuals were (including the woman who was roaming the area and who the officers were made aware of by me and my girlfriend), did not even look for bullet casings. I still believe that my life was in danger since it looked like Morningstar was trying to reach into her car, where I later found out she had two illegal weapons.
I do not think I have been granted a fair process, as I never got an opportunity to give a full statement. I also offered to show my bodycam footage to the officers but they dismissed it. Officer Sebastian Papadakis offered to let me give the statement at Mission Row PD but officer John Styll refused and took me to DOC. From the moment Morningstar was frisked, the officers were determined to charge me, neglecting the investigation as a result. Morningstar’s arresting officer was Ace Butoslav, who wasn’t there for the most time and was only told the charges. The whole process was very rushed and I feel that I didn’t get a fair chance of defending myself. As a result of this neglected investigation, I’ve been charged with assault with a deadly weapon (WF01), causing me to lose both of my government jobs (Los Santos Emergency Services, Los Santos Customs) and banning me from applying anywhere else.
On 13th of September 2021, I have submitted an IA report which was concluded as : ''Following the investigation into the allegations made in the initial written complaint, the Internal Affairs Group will be concluding this particular case with the disposition of EXONERATED, meaning that the alleged act(s) did occur but were fully justified, lawful, and proper.''
Signed,
Alex Mathers