Davis police announced Tuesday the arrest of a man suspected of vandalizing a woman’s car as she drove home from work through a crowd of Picnic Day partiers.
Erick Davies, 22, of Sacramento, was taken into custody Tuesday morning on a warrant charging him with felony vandalism, Lt. Paul Doroshov said.
His arrest occurred just hours before the five suspects in another Picnic Day incident, a brawl involving revelers and several plain-clothed police officers, were arraigned in Yolo Superior Court on charges of assault on a peace officer and resisting an officer.
The vandalism incident occurred on the night of April 22 on M Street, where police allege that Davies stomped on and dented the woman’s vehicle, causing more than $7,000 in damage.
The 21-year-old victim, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her safety, told The Enterprise at the time that she had just left work that night and was heading home when she encountered a large crowd in the street, blocking several cars from passing through.
“I started honking for them to move, but none of them would,” the woman said. Suddenly, about 20 to 30 people surrounded her Honda Civic and started rocking it back and forth, pounding on the windows and cursing. “It was really scary.”
Some also kicked the car’s side panels and jumped on the hood and roof. Video from social media posts of the incident show the suspects shouting “f— your car” and other expletives as the crowd cheers them on. The woman remained inside the vehicle and was not physically injured.
Davies was booked into the Yolo County Jail with bail set at $20,000; he was no longer in custody as of this morning. He is expected to be arraigned next month in Yolo Superior Court.
Preliminary hearing
Meanwhile, a July 27 preliminary hearing date has been scheduled for the five suspects in the Picnic Day altercation between a crowd of revelers and three plain-clothed police officers on Russell Boulevard.
Alexander Craver, 22, of West Sacramento; Antwoine Perry, 21, of Elk Grove; Iszir Price, 22, of North Highlands; Angelica Reyes, 20, of Rio Linda; and Elijah Williams, 19, of West Sacramento; pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges including assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury on a peace officer, and resisting an executive officer by means of force or violence.
All remain free on $100,000 bail bonds while the case is pending.
Although prosecuting attorney Ryan Couzens announced in court last week that he intended to seek $200,000 bail for Williams, who is accused of separate assaults on two officers, he withdrew that request at Tuesday’s arraignment hearing.
Couzens had claimed to have video he said detailed Williams’ alleged attacks on the officers, and Commissioner Kent O’Mara was to have viewed the footage in court Tuesday after Williams’ attorney, Mark Reichel, objected to the bail increase and disputed Couzens’ take on his client’s actions.
While that did not happen, Couzens did ask for a swift preliminary hearing in the case within 10 court days, a request that defense attorneys deemed unrealistic as nearly all five said they have yet to receive any discovery from the District Attorney’s Office.
Reichel told O’Mara they were dealing with a “complex case” that likely will require testimony from experts in the area of police rules, regulations and misconduct issues.
“There’s no way we’re going to be prepared to go, so why don’t we set a real date,” added defense lawyer Jeff Raven, who is in talks to represent Price. He noted that it took prosecutors nearly six weeks after the incident to file charges given the lengthy investigation.
O’Mara sided with the defense, setting the late July preliminary hearing, during which a judge determines whether there is sufficient evidence for a case to proceed trial. Judge David Rosenberg has been assigned to preside over the matter.
The assault charges allege that the defendants “knew and reasonably should have known that the victim was a peace officer engaged in the performance of the victim’s duties” during the melee, although they and other witnesses have claimed the officers, dressed in street clothes and riding in an unmarked van, failed to identify themselves as police.
Police also contend that it was the crowd members who assaulted them first after they pulled over to move along people who were blocking the road, while the defendants say the officers were the aggressors. Two of the officers suffered head injuries during the fight.
Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel has ordered an internal affairs investigation into the incident and is still in the process of finding an outside investigator to conduct the probe.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene