Sparsely, Sage and Timely
DA’s probe of pepper-spraying revealed
Like 12 people seeing a car wreck, witnesses who saw two Point Reyes National Seashore rangers pepper-spray Chris and Jessica Miller on July 28 have given a District Attorney’s investigator, Carl Chapman, somewhat different versions of what happened.
The DA’s Office on Tuesday made available to Light reporter Jacob Resneck recordings of Chapman’s interviews with eight witnesses and his report summarizing each interview. Those interviewed were:
• Janis Cerisi, 40, of Point Reyes Station, a homeowner living across Highway 1 from where the Inverness Park teens were sprayed.
• Her ex-husband Scott Lamorte, 38, of Connecticut, who was staying with her at the time.
• William White, 18, who since the incident has moved from Marshall to Hawaii. White, a sailing instructor, had been driving home after work about 5 p.m. when ranger Roger Mayo stopped him for not having a front license plate. The traffic stop was near White House Pool and not in any park.
• Emile Kempf, 18, of Inverness, a sailing instructor who was a passenger in White’s car. After he complained about the length of the traffic stop, he has said, the Point Reyes National Seashore ranger yanked him out of the car by his clothes, made him sit on the ground, and taunted with obscenities, such as calling him an "asshole." He and White afterward went to the Point Reyes Sheriff’s Substation and to Point Reyes National Seashore headquarters to complain that Mayo had been abusive. Hours after the complaints, Mayo found White’s car parked on the levee road, arrested the sailing instructors, drove them to National Seashore headquarters where he cited them on charges of threatening behavior, and then drove them back to Point Reyes Station. Ranger Angelina Gregorio accompanied him in the patrolcar. The National Seashore subsequently refused to tell the sailing instructors how they supposedly threatened anyone and instead dropped the charges.
• Pamela Carr, 48, of Point Reyes Station, a parent who had been picking up her daughter on the levee road when she became concerned at seeing ranger Mayo arrest White and Kempf. She followed the ranger’s patrolcar to Point Reyes National Seashore headquarters and then back to town. After she heard Jessica screaming in pain and saw a commotion, she advised Ceresi to call 911. Ranger Gregorio ordered Carr to leave the area, so she drove off to get her husband.
• Riley Genazzi, 17, of Point Reyes Station. He drove past the rangers’ patrolcar when they were about to release Kempf and White near the Green Bridge. Pepper-spray victims Chris and Jessica Miller, 18 and 17, asked Genazzi to stop so they could find out why their friends were in the patrolcar’s cage.
• Kevin McIsaac, 15, of Point Reyes Station, another passenger in Genazzi’s car.
• David Lopez, 18, of Point Reyes Station, a fourth passenger in Genazzi’s car.
The eight witnesses all saw some of the pepper-spray incident, which occurred after the Miller teens approached the rangers, asking about White and Kempf. However, no one witness saw everything.
As would be expected, the witnesses had slightly different impressions of what happened. There was not unanimous agreement as to whether Chris or Jessica was sprayed first, but most witnesses said it was Chris. The witnesses disagreed whether the patrolcar’s doors were open or shut and whether Jessica was calm or emotional when she approached the rangers. However, several common themes ran through the witnesses’ accounts.
In summarizing his interviews, investigator Chapman wrote: "It is my belief, based on the...interviews, that the only persons who saw the initial contact between the rangers and Chris and Jessica are White and Kempf, and by all accounts, the rangers told Chris and Jessica more than once to leave the area and not interfere."
White said that after he and Kempf were cited at park headquarters, the rangers told them they would not be released from custody until Carr, who was parked nearby, left the scene. Eventually ranger Gregorio went to Carr’s BMW and told the parent to leave, which she did.
White said he could not hear what was said between the rangers and the Millers, but Kempf told the DA’s investigator the rangers "started kind of freaking out at Jessica and Chris. Mayo immediately started yelling at them, ‘Get the fuck out of there!’ It’s none of their business and to ‘stay away.’ Jessica kind of yelled back a little bit."
White said, "Chris turned around and started to walk away. Ranger Mayo ran after Chris with his pepper-spray and nightstick out. Chris turned around, and ranger Mayo sprayed him in the face from a distance of about five feet. Chris swatted at his face and started to walk away. Ranger Mayo grabbed Chris by the arms and walked him back to the patrol vehicle. Chris sat on the ground in front of the patrol vehicle.
"Ranger Gregorio grabbed Jessica and walked her back to the vehicle. Jessica was very upset, screaming and fussing. Ranger Mayo sprayed Jessica. Ranger Mayo [also] hit ranger Gregorio in the face with the pepper-spray. Ranger Gregorio was trying to handcuff Jessica. Ranger Gregorio had Jessica on the ground. Ranger Gregorio’s knee was on Jessica’s back."
White also believes he saw Gregorio pepper-spray Jessica, but the Park Service has said that ranger’s pepper-spray was not used. Kempf and Jessica’s brother Chris two weeks ago told The Light they did not see ranger Gregorio spray Jessica. What accounts for White’s misimpression?
As it happened, the National Seashore in the aftermath of the incident acknowledged rumors were floating around that ranger Gregorio had at one point drawn her pistol on Jessica. Chief ranger Colin Smith told The Light she had not. To double-check this, I tried to question Lopez but was unable to catch up him, so I sent a question through his brother Juan. The answer Juan brought back was that Gregorio had not drawn her gun but at one point had aimed her pepper-spray canister at Jessica as if it were a gun.
In summarizing Kempf’s description, the DA’s investigator wrote, "Jessica had started to walk away as soon as Chris turned back, but after ranger Mayo sprayed Chris, Jessica turned around and said, ‘That’s my fucking brother’ and came running up." Kempf added, ‘The rangers immediately started spraying Jessica. The rangers handcuffed Jessica after about three or four squirts. Jessica was trying to hide her face with her visor. Mayo moved her visor and sprayed her in the face."
Cerisi’s ex-husband Lamorte gave a similar account. The DA’s investigator wrote that Lamorte told him he "heard a person yell two times in a loud but calm voice, ‘Stop! Stop! Get down!’ Lamorte believes this was the male ranger."
Chris Miller has said he didn’t know why he was being ordered to sit on the ground, and Lamorte quoted him as asking Mayo, ‘Who are you? What did I do?’ The person who he believes was [Mayo] yelled, ‘I am a police officer. Get down on the fucking ground.’"
Lamorte said he then heard someone, "who he believes was [Gregorio]," yell, ‘Get down on the ground,’ and "You fucking bitch.’"
As far as having behaved in ways that could jeopardize their employment, rangers Mayo and Gregorio have been "exonerated" by an internal investigation, the Park Service announced two weeks ago.
While the Park Service has failed to make public the report on its internal investigation of the rangers, as it had promised to do, the Pacific West Region of the Park Service has issued a brief summary of the report. A written statement from regional office paraphrased the report as saying ranger Gregorio has been "exonerated for her actions related to the use of force.... Ranger Mayo was exonerated for his actions related to the use of pepper-spray."
In a separate statement, the Point Reyes National Seashore said, "The investigative report concludes by exonerating both rangers of excessive-force allegations."
Curiously, however, the rangers have not been exonerated of the most-heinous brutality of which they have been accused. "The investigation does not substantiate claims that the two rangers involved in the incident held open [Jessica’s] eyes to pepper-spray directly into them," the regional office stated. If an allegation cannot be substantiated, a sheriff’s deputy has now explained to me, it means authorities have not been able to determine whether or not an event occurred.
Whether or not ranger Mayo spread Jessica’s eyelids to directly spray her eyeballs, as she has said, will be one of the million-dollar questions when the Millers’ lawsuit against the Park Service goes to trial.
Meanwhile, the regional office of the Park Service is conducting a "review" of ranger Mayo’s behavior toward Kempf and White. He has been "reassigned" for now. Ranger Gregorio, however, is back on the job.