O.C. deputy charged with falsifying police report may have done it another time, attorney claims
An attorney representing a formerly homeless veteran who was allegedly beaten and Tased by Orange County sheriff’s deputies believes a deputy filed false police reports on the incident.
Attorney Narine Mkrtchyan said that Deputy Chad Renegar beat her client, Jeremy Holloway, and then fabricated the details of the violent episode.
Mkrtchyan believes Holloway’s case is stronger now after Renegar was charged last month with falsifying a separate police report.
“My client was injured and beat up, and then they lied about it, claiming that he was violent and that he was refusing to comply with their commands,” Mkrtchyan said Monday over the phone. “... My client has suffered serious injuries. I’m really happy that now we can use that criminal case to push my client’s case and get some compensation for his injuries.”
Renegar faces up to four years and eight months in prison for the charges, which allegedly occurred while he was working as a field training officer in 2019 in Rancho Santa Margarita.
According to district attorney spokeswoman Kimberly Edds, Renegar and the deputy he was training at the time responded to a woman who reported that her license plate was stolen. The woman told Renegar that the license plate was stolen in Santa Monica, which led to the initial report being rejected by a sergeant because it was out of the Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction, Edds said.
Renegar allegedly told the deputy he was training to change the location to Rancho Santa Margarita, but the trainee didn’t, Edds said. Renegar then allegedly typed up a report under the trainee’s name. He also filled out a second form, changing the location to Rancho Santa Margarita and forging the victim’s name, Edds said.
Edds said Monday that there have been no updates on the case since the announcement. Sheriff’s spokesman Dennis Breckner said Monday that Renegar is on paid leave. He is scheduled to be arraigned later this month.
Renegar is just the latest Orange County sheriff’s deputy to be investigated for falsifying police reports. The department has been embroiled in an evidence booking scandal, where several deputies failed to file evidence or filed it late.
Mkrtchyan, whose firm is based out of Glendale, said the license plate case bears significant weight in Holloway’s case, where Renegar was the arresting officer.
Mkrtchyan said Renegar filed false reports about the incident with her client, claiming that Holloway provoked the attack by resisting arrest and making threats toward the deputies. The district attorney’s office dropped the case against Holloway, she said.
Holloway’s account — laid out in a legal complaint — describes a much different picture.
The alleged beating of Holloway occurred in January 2018, when he was approached by deputies at his tent in O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon.
Holloway, who was 41 at the time, was awakened by deputies following up on a report of domestic abuse, the complaint says.
Mkrtchyan said the Sheriff’s Department received a call from someone who said a woman and man were involved in the dispute, yet the deputies zeroed in on Holloway, whose only companion was his dog.
Renegar and another deputy searched Holloway’s belongings in the tent without his consent, the complaint says. Then the deputies left.
Mkrtchyan said the department then received another call of a woman screaming at the campsite. However, a police report said the caller indicated that a man was walking around the campsite searching for whoever called the police on him.
Homeless people living out of RVs in Fullerton are at odds with the city.
The deputies confronted Holloway, who according to Mkrtchyan, was on informal probation for insurance fraud at the time. According to the complaint, Holloway complied with a deputy’s orders to step away from his tent with his hands up.
“Suddenly and without provocation, at least one defendant punched Jeremy on the left side of his face, causing him to fall to the ground,” the complaint says. “Immediately after his fall, he had deputies get on top of him while choking him and kneeing him in the temple, maliciously causing him pain and suffering. While on the ground already detained, he was shot with a Taser approximately five times.
“As he lay helpless on the ground bleeding profusely, he was ruthlessly attacked from all sides, and could feel the right side of his face get kneed and his head get kicked multiple times ...”
Holloway was left with bruised ribs and legs, a head injury, a severely bleeding and swollen face, loss of vision, severe pain in his back and periodic loss of consciousness, the complaint says.
Holloway, who Mkrtchyan said served as a Marine in Iraq, is receiving treatment at a Veterans Affairs hospital near him in Pennsylvania for vision loss, headaches, backache and severe emotional distress, the complaint says.
The trial of Holloway’s case is set to begin in May.
Mkrtchyan said it’s “unfortunate” that the Sheriff’s Department has not disciplined Renegar.
“It’s very interesting, the department does not do anything,” Mkrtchyan said.
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