Wayne K. Guillary is afraid to step outside the million-dollar home he and his wife built on 2 acres in Riverside's upscale White Gate Estates.
"My biggest fear is the Riverside Police Department," said Guillary, himself a sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department, for which he has worked 27 years.
Guillary, 52, is black. He believes he is a victim of racial profiling and law enforcement bullying and has filed a damage claim against the city of Riverside for more than $5 million for violating his rights, trespassing on his property and intentionally inflicting emotional harm.
"There was such animosity, hatred and antipathy," he said in a phone interview. "It was dehumanizing."
Guillary alleges that on Oct. 7, in front of his house, a police officer roughed him up, threatened to shock him with a Taser, forced him to the ground at gunpoint, and later filed a fraudulent report. Guillary wasn't arrested but said he plans to sue within the next six months.
"We do not believe the claim has merit, and the city intends to reject it," City Attorney Greg Priamos said.
"We don't comment on anything going into litigation," said Steven Fraser, a spokesman for the Riverside Police Department.
Guillary's attorney, Michael Posner of LA, said: "I would hope our outrage is reflective of the entire community. I would hope justice is done for the city."
A week after the incident, the LAPD launched an investigation of Guillary because of the report filed by Riverside police. Guillary has not yet seen it. His supervisor shared snippets with him about his resisting an officer, balling his fist and assuming a fighting stance -- all false, Guillary said.
Several neighbors told him that LAPD officers have since come to question them.
At 1:10 p.m. Oct. 7, Guillary says, he was sitting at the western end of his property on a 2-foot-high concrete ledge, chatting with a saleswoman, Leslie Jo Young, 45, who is black. He was off duty and wearing gardening clothes, a black T-shirt and gray pants. His family was inside.
Young, a mother of five who lives in Santa Ana, said by phone that she works for Movement Sales Enterprises and sells Bibles and educational materials, mostly to inner-city children, door-to-door. She said she had canvassed this neighborhood last year.
When a marked police vehicle pulled up outside Guillary's $1.3 million Mediterrranean-style home, he told the officer that they were "just talking."
Young said the officer ordered them to leave immediately and to resume their conversation at a park.
The officer warned them they were trespassing on private property. Guillary, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall and 200 pounds, said he walked toward the front-entrance gate, unarmed, and stayed 40 feet away while the officer backed his car into the driveway. Despite attempts to explain that he was an off-duty Los Angeles police officer and the homeowner, Guillary said, the officer pointed a Taser at him, and then a gun.
"Wayne kept saying, 'Let me show you my badge and my ID,' but the officer wouldn't let him," Young said. "I was so scared I was crying."
Guillary said he complied with the officer's orders to lie face down for more than 10 minutes on the burning asphalt in 99-degree heat, but begged to crawl onto the cooler grass. The officer threatened to shoot him if he moved, Guillary said in the claim.
With car lights flashing and sirens blaring, eight or nine additional officers, none of them black, arrived at Guillary's home, he said. Guillary said he was handcuffed, searched and humiliated, adding that the arresting officer commanded him to sit in a flowerbed rather than on the concrete wall.
They released him without apologies after verifying his identity.
"Not one Riverside police officer, supervisor or agent made an attempt to offer an explanation to my wife, family and me as to the reason for the unlawful detention and arrest," Guillary said in the claim. "They just departed."
Colleagues and citizens praise Guillary as a great officer. As watch commander for the northeast division of the LAPD, he manages the night shift.
"He's an excellent cop," said LAPD Sgt. Sandy Rosenberg, a watch commander and one of Guillary's peers. "He's smart and well-educated. I trust him."
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