A Long Beach police officer was suspended
for 40 hours based on e-mailing to his wife and to a friend the video he
recorded on his cell phone of a handcuffed woman, face-down on the floor,
screaming, the Court of Appeal for this district held Friday.
Authoring the unpublished opinion
was Sanjay Kumar, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge serving on assignment to
Div. Five. It upholds a judgment of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph E.
DiLoreto, who denied a writ of administrative mandamus.
The video was taken by the appellant,
Officer Jason Mifflin, in the booking area of the police station. In e-mailing
it to his wife, he commented:
“I hope you’re enjoying the party at
home. This is what I am doing.”
In sending it to a friend, he
remarked:
“This is what I’m doing at work tonight.
Do not forward this to anybody.”
Mifflin insisted he did nothing
wrong. Kumar disagreed, going through the administrative findings, one by one,
backing each one.