WINNEMUCCA OFFICER
ACQUITTED OF
BATTERY CHARGES
Andy Murdock, a police
officer with the Winnemucca Police Department, was acquitted of
misdemeanor battery charges on September 19, 1996. Winnemucca is
a rural Nevada town located 160 miles northeast of Reno which
houses, both the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department and the Winnemucca
Police Department.
On June 10, 1996, Murdock
was on routine patrol when he was dispatched to a scene of a reported
disturbance on Melarkey Street in Winnemucca. Murdock arrived minutes
later and met with the reporting female who was visibly upset and
shaken.
She related to Murdock
that her neighbor, who was also her landlord, had screamed at her young
brothers who were in her yard and cursed at them calling them
"little bastards" which upset her. She spoke to her landlord
and told him not to use such language with her brothers, whereupon the
landlord began berating her and threatened to send her back to Battle
Mountain where she came from.
The victim related that
this was not the first time that she had been subjected to her
landlord's abusive behavior and she wanted it to stop. By this time it
was approximately 9:30 p.m.
Murdock indicated to the
victim that he would go talk to her neighbor and see what the problem
was. The officer went up to the front door and rang the doorbell. No one
answered. He rang the doorbell again and waited. No one answered.
There were no visible
lights on in the home and the porch area in which he was standing was
dark. After the third ring, Murdock observed a light illuminate the
window to the side of the door, immediately after that he heard the door
unlocking. At that moment the door was flung open by a person inside the
house and Murdock was confronted with a human figure pointing a gun
directly at his face through the glass and aluminum screen door.
Murdock had no
information when he went over to the house that the occupant was armed
nor did he know the individuals living there or any history related to
them. The occupant of the home held the gun on the officer for a number
of seconds and then without explanation or any communication whatsoever
put the gun down toward his side and began to retreat into the home.
Seeing an opening,
Murdock quickly opened the screen door and grabbed the weapon still in
the hand of the occupant of the home. The occupant, discerned to be a
male, resisted the removal of the weapon. Murdock wrenched it free
shoving the offender away from him in order to put distance between the
male and the gun he had just removed.
At this time Murdock was
able to see that the individual who had pointed the gun at him was am
elderly man, later identified as Frank Garteiz, and that he was not
making any other furtive moves.
Murdock, shocked and
shaken by having a gun pointed at his face in a completely defenseless
position, asked him in no uncertain terms why he pointed a gun at him
and inquired if he realized that that could have resulted in the
officer's death or his own.
At that time, Murdock
called for his supervisor who came on scene shortly thereafter. Because
of the nature of the incident, Murdock left the residence and briefed
the sergeant on what had occurred. He was still upset and shaken by this
incident.
When Sergeant Dawson went
inside, Garteiz, who appeared extremely agitated, demanded to know what
he wanted. Dawson identified his purpose there, whereupon Garteiz denied
pointing the gun at the officer, claimed that Murdock hit him in the
back of the head and knocked him to the ground. However, he did admit
going to the door with the weapon but claimed he only pointed the gun in
a downward direction.
While obtaining this and
other information from both Garteiz and his wife, who was also
present but did not see the incident at the front door, Dawson could
smell the odor of alcohol on Garteiz. In response to further questioning
by Dawson, Garteiz related to him that he wasn't going to shoot him.
"If I was I would have shot him and I'd shoot you too."
The sergeant asked
Garteiz if he wanted to shoot him, to which Garteiz replied,
"No." Garteiz admitted being upset with his renter and claimed
that he did not know the person at his door was a police officer and that
only "strangers" use the front door instead of the side door
as everybody knows to enter through the side door.
Dawson inquired whether
Garteiz needed medical attention to which he responded, "no."
There were no signs of injury to him. Dawson then decided to have the
matter written up as an incident report with no arrest.
The following day Garteiz,
a lifelong Winnemucca resident, and an individual who had been involved
with the city in large land acquisition transactions, met with various
city officials. Within a couple of hours of this meeting, the Humboldt
County Sheriff's Office was directed by the Humboldt County District
Attorney, Michael McCormick, to conduct a criminal investigation into
the "Complaint" by Garteiz against Murdock.
On June 13, 1996, Garteiz,
despite his statements to Dawson the evening of the incident, made the
following statement to a Humboldt County investigator. He said that he
was in bed at 9 p.m. the night of June 10, 1996, when he
was disturbed by young children making a lot of noise outside the
apartment of one of his tenants. Garteiz blew a referee's whistle to
quiet down the children and then went back to bed.
A short time later his
wife told him that someone was at the front door and he went to the door
armed with an automatic pistol. Garteiz then claimed he unlocked the
door, recognized a policeman standing on his porch and invited the
officer into his living room whereupon for no reason at all the officer
wrenched his left arm up behind his back pulled the pistol from his
right hand hit him in the back of the head knocking him to the floor and
placed a knee in his back.
Ultimately, despite his
previous statements to the contrary, Garteiz claimed various injuries
including a bruised spine, fractured rib and dislocated left wrist. On
June 20, 1996, Humboldt County District Attorney, Michael
McCormick, filed a misdemeanor battery complaint against Murdock in the
Winnemucca Municipal Court and the matter was set for trial upon
Murdock's not guilty plea.
Prior to trial ,however,
the Humboldt County District Attorney transferred prosecution of the
case to Elko County District Attorney, Gary Woodbury, citing his
relationship with the City of Winnemucca Police Department as the
reason. Trial was commenced on August 8, 1996, before Justice of
the Peace, Gordon Richardson.
During presentation of
the prosecution's case it became clear through cross-examination of
the complainant and witnesses that the version of events given by
Garteiz had not remained at all consistent from the day of the event to
the present. Despite his statements to Humboldt County investigators
regarding the time of the dispute, the only incident that had happened
was that he blew his whistle at the children at 7:30 p.m. that
evening.
Further, the complainant
continued to allege that he had sustained injuries to his back, ribs and
left wrist. However, unknown to the complainant or the city, the
defendant's attorney, LDF panel attorney, Mark A. Kilburn, had engaged
the services of an investigator, who had in early July 1996, videotaped
Garteiz moving about the grounds of his residence in no apparent
discomfort, picking weeds and carrying a full trash can by using the
very wrist he claimed was injured.
Trial was continued to
September 19, 1996, whereupon the videotape was presented to the court
along with other evidence, including testimony of the investigator and
Murdock. Murdock related that Garteiz did in fact point a gun at his
face when he opened the door and instead of employing lethal force as
would have been authorized, he saw an opening to disarm the individual
minimizing the risk of injury to himself or the citizen.
In addition, Murdock was
able to assess that the citizen was an elderly man and appeared not to
have been intending to point a gun at a police officer, but at whoever
was at the door bothering him at that time of night, shortly after
having been involved in a dispute with his tenant. Therefore, Murdock
did not immediately arrest the citizen but turned the matter over to his
supervisor for determination.
The supervisor decided to
treat the matter in an incident report only. At the conclusion of trial,
Justice of the Peace Gordon Richardson, found that although Murdock had
used force upon Garteiz, that force was completely justified in light of
Garteiz aiming the weapon at the officer and in fact it was Murdock's
duty to disarm an individual who had committed such an act.
Murdock has since
returned to full duty status, and is happy that the matter is over and
his reputation as a honest, hardworking police officer who cares about
the community he lives in has been reaffirmed.
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