WILDOMAR, CA — Last month, Riverside County paid $1.3 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused two deputies of using excessive and breaking the facial bones of a Wildomar man, The Press-Enterprise reported.
Kenneth Ciccarelli was sitting on his backyard patio listening to loud music when a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy walked up and told him to turn off the music, the newspaper reported.
Ciccarelli could barely see the officer with a flashlight pointed in his face. He was slow to turn down the music that had spurred neighborhood complaints that summer in 2019. After the encounter, Ciccarelli was left with a bashed-in face. He was then arrested on suspicion of battery on a peace officer, according to the newspaper.
Ciccarelli’s attorney, Jerry Steering, says the Sheriff’s Department destroyed the official pictures taken of his client’s face. But he was able to obtain a copy three years later through a deputy’s cell phone.
“The manner in which (deputies) seized and restrained Ciccarelli was patently unreasonable, excessively brutal, sadistic and malicious,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed Feb. 18 , Steering.
