2014/03/24: Five Lawsuits filed for home invasions and camera/video thefts

The five people whose homes were invaded, cameras stolen, and video evidence apparently destroyed have filed separate lawsuits against Kern County:

• Francisco Arrieta
• Maria Melendez
• Melissa Quair
• Sulina Quair
• Laura Vasquez

PDF copies of these lawsuits are provided below:

Causes of action were stated as follows:

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The causes of action in the Arrieta & Melendez suits were enumerated differently and included several additions:​

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For how much longer can Kern County afford to keep paying the bills for Donny Youngblood and his band of goons?

Bakersfield Californian: Lawsuits filed by witnesses in David Silva case (Mar 24 2014)

Lawsuits have been filed in federal court on behalf of five people who allege Kern County sheriff's deputies unlawfully detained them and improperly seized their personal property after they used their cellphones to record a confrontation between law enforcement and David Sal Silva in May of last year.​

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The plaintiffs are suing Kern County for damages in an amount to be determined at trial. The plaintiffs are Maria Melendez; her daughters, Melissa and Sulina Quair; and family friends Francisco Arrieta and Laura Vasquez.​

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Melendez and Arrieta witnessed the violent confrontation May 7 between deputies and the 33-year-old Silva and used their cellphones to record the incident, according to Rodriguez's court filings. Sulina Quair, in a 911 call during the confrontation, is heard telling authorities she's going to send the footage to news media. Sheriff's investigators showed up at the apartment of Melissa Quair two hours later and demanded the cellphones used to record the incident be handed over, the filings say. Rodriguez has said this period stretched into hours and authorities wouldn't let anyone enter or exit the apartment. The lawsuits say authorities "continued to harass, threaten, intimidate, pressure, unlawfully touch, and/or assault those present." Eventually, all the phones were turned over to deputies.​

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Rodriguez said a jury will have to answer two principal questions: Did the Kern County Sheriff's Office have the right to keep people prisoners in their own homes when they're witnesses and not criminals; and, did the Sheriff's Office have the right to take people's personal property without their consent and without a search warrant?​

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And this little gem that I hadn't read of before:

Youngblood asked the FBI to conduct a parallel investigation into the case soon after the incident. Details of that investigation have not been made public.​

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"Not made public" probably = does not exonerate Donny & his band of thugs. Only Donny's self-absolving investigations & autopsies seem to get released in Kern County.​