Two pairs of Fresno police partners have filed a lawsuit claiming they were falsely accused by higher-ranking officers of a sexual assault and its cover up.
The lawsuit filed July 30 followed a June 3, 2023, incident in which a woman who was being questioned by police claimed she was sexually assaulted by officer Sean Clapper, but the filing claims body-worn camera footage and other evidence would clear the officer if it was pursued properly by the Fresno Police Department.
Clapper was joined in the lawsuit by his partner, Daniel Saldana, and two other officers who were partners, Justin Phoolka and Karanpreet Sangha, according to the complaint filed with the U.S. Eastern District Court of California.
The city of Fresno does not comment on ongoing litigation, according to Sontaya Rose, spokesperson for the Fresno Mayor’s Office.
The filing notes none of the officers were charged with a crime, but says their ability to advance in the department has been affected by the accusations.
“The culmination of the allegations against the officers was met with the District Attorney’s decision to not press charges, as the foundational evidence was lacking — victim’s inconsistencies, no conclusive forensic findings, GPS data coinciding with plaintiffs’ account and the absence of definitively incriminating DNA results,” the lawsuit says.
The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office told The Fresno Bee prosecutors would not discuss the case because of the ongoing litigation except to say charges were not filed on the officers “based upon insufficient evidence,” according to the DA’s spokesperson Taylor Long.
The lawsuit names as defendants former Chief Paco Balderrama, Sgt. Jonathan Long and Sgt. Dave Wilkin, as well as the city of Fresno.
The claim says the officers’ personal possessions were taken illegally when their electronic devices were confiscated, and the men were victims of retaliation and other improprieties. They’re asking for an unspecified amount of money to be decided at trial, according to records.
The attorney representing all four men did not return requests for comment.
The officers on the night in question were serving a warrant on a woman who was on probation and who had a criminal history related to drugs, guns and sex work, the lawsuit says.
The officers’ body cameras were running throughout the interaction with the woman except for a couple of key moments. The first was when Phoolka took his camera off to speak to her about being a confidential informant, a civilian who supplies information to the police, the filing says.
The lawsuit says a cadet and another officer were present at the time and both had their cameras rolling. The woman refused the offer.
The second time without a rolling camera was while she was alone with Clapper as he transported her in a police cruiser to Fresno County Jail, the lawsuit says. His camera began continuously beeping, which is a sign the battery would die, so he turned it off.
Once at the jail, the woman told a nurse she had been struck on the head by an officer and then hit her head a second time as police threw her into the cruiser, the lawsuit says. She was transported to an area hospital to be evaluated.
The woman told Clapper she wanted to speak to a family member at the hospital, but he denied her request as part of protocol, the lawsuit says.
At the hospital, she requested a rape kit examination by a nurse, the lawsuit says.
The complaint says the woman’s statements to police about the sexual assault were inconsistent. She said she was assaulted during the conversation about becoming a confidential informant, which was when she was speaking to Phoolka, who is Asian.
In a lineup conducted by Fresno police that included all four officers among 15 photos of cops in uniform, she identified Clapper, who is white, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit goes on to say one of the defendant sergeants, Long, didn’t follow protocol in conducting the lineup and coached the woman through it.
The lawsuit claims the cruiser’s digital tracker also showed the car never strayed from its direct route.
The court filing says both sergeants, Long and Wilkin, stepped on the civil rights of the officers; all four were interrogated and each submitted to DNA tests. At times, the defendants ordered the officers’ attorneys to leave the interrogation room, the lawsuit says.
The group of officers refused a second round of interviews by the higher-ranking officers, the lawsuit notes.
All four officers remain employed and on duty with Fresno Police Department though Clapper was at times on administrative leave during the investigation, the lawsuit says.
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