San Jose Police Officers Steven Payne, Jr. & Kenneth Siegel, Two Others, Placed on Leave for After Video Surfaces Shows Student Phuong Ho Beaten

Four police officers in San Jose have been placed on administrative leave while the department conducts an investigation into the beating of Phuong Ho, 20, a San Jose State University math major from Vietnam, who was taken into custody on September 3, after police responded to a disturbance call. The incident was captured on a grainy cell phone video and showed Ho repeatedly struck with a baton and was shocked with a Taser gun. Police reports of the incident state that officer Kenneth Siegel used his baton, and officer Steven Payne Jr. used his Taser gun to subdue Ho, whom the reports detailed as violently kicking and refusing to comply with their orders as they attempted to place Ho in handcuffs. The video shows a far different story.

The grainy video, which was taken by one of Ho's roommates, shows more than 10 baton strikes as well as Taser gun usage that can be considered as excessive and possibly criminal. Police officials said Siegel and Payne, Jerome Smith and Gabriel Reyes were placed on leave while their internal investigation proceeds.

What is equally disturbing is that Ho can be heard moaning and crying as he was on the ground. So, how can the police officers say he was resisting arrested and being combative? What is alarming is the fact that the final baton blow came as he was handcuffed.

What led to this beating?

The video shows San Jose officers' actions after they were called because of a Sept. 3 encounter between Ho and a roommate, Jeremy Suftin, that began when Suftin slopped soap on Ho's dinner steak. The two scuffled and Ho picked up a steak knife, saying that in Vietnam "I would kill you" for this.

At least some roommates laughed at the comment, as shown on a videotape reviewed by the Mercury News. But Suftin said he took it seriously, and the police were called.

Ho quickly dropped the knife and was not armed when police arrived, according to witnesses. But police reports state he ignored commands to stand in a hallway as officers entered his room to check his wallet for identification. When Ho tried to follow officer Siegel into his room, officer Payne pushed him into a wall in the hallway, forced him to the floor and attempted to handcuff him, their reports state. It was then that another roommate captured on video the officers using repeated baton strikes and a Taser gun on Ho, who was on the floor. Source:  Mercury News

Even if this young man initially resisted arrest, how far should the police go to subdue him? It certainly does not rise to the level of brutality that is seen in this video. It will be very interesting to see the outcome of this investigation. It is quite obvious that the police incident report and what transpired on the video are vastly different accounts of what happened.

To watch the video, CLICK HERE.