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Updated: 10:54 a.m. Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 | Posted: 5:16 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011
SEATTLE —
That same Seattle police officer who was videotaped in April as he kicked and said to a Latino detainee that he would "beat the f***ing Mexican piss" out of him has been caught in another embarrassing situation.
KIRO Team 7 Investigators recently acquired additional videotape of Seattle Police Department gang detective Shandy Cobane behaving badly.
Internal affairs told KIRO 7 it is reviewing at least two incidents of excessive force against Cobane, the first of which is the infamous stomping case. The second is an allegation from the same week, from a young man in Belltown who claimed Cobane choked him.
The latest videotape was recorded from a West Precinct police station jail holding area surveillance camera on April 24, 2010.
The video shows Cobane angrily flipping the bird at a detainee, who was already secured in a cell. In the moments leading up to the obscene gesture, the video shows Cobane arguing with the handcuffed man. The talk gets so heated, a fellow officer steps in to tactfully intervene on two occasions -- once at the cell door, and again after Cobane continues to rant from across the room.
Cobane is a cop who has already been "administratively reassigned" for kicking innocent detainee, Martin Monetti, in the head last April. He apologized to the Latino community for his poor choice of words, which were recorded ("You got me? Im going to beat the f***ing Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?"). That moment also helped draw the attention of the Justice Department, which wants to see if the Seattle Police Department is treating people fairly.
An attorney familiar with the never-before-made-public jail video said the video was captured shortly after the arrest of 24-year-old David Rengo.
We interviewed Rengo for a Team 7 Investigation into Cobane last year. Rengo filed an excessive force complaint against Cobane, then followed it up with the request of a restraining order against the him. In the court record for that request, Rengo wrote, "I am very scared and fear for my life."
"(Cobane) came around the passenger side, opened the door up and just choked me until I lost -- I couldn't -- when I started kicking 'cause I was about to pass out, he let me go," Rengo told KIRO 7 during a November interview. "I took a breath, then he choked me again."
Rengo was arrested for allegedly pushing Cobane outside a bar on April 23 last year. Rengo said he never touched Cobane, but Rengo was taken to jail anyway, where he admits he called Cobane every name in the book for allegedly choking him "for fun" earlier that night. Thats the same thing he says he told Seattle police's internal affairs. Then, Rengo told KIRO 7 that Cobane didnt act professionally at the jail.
"Officer Cobane walked in, and I saw him and recognized him as the person who choked me," Rengo said. "I called him a coward. From my perspective, he took off his gun and badge and ran at me -- came at me like he was going to attack me."
The video doesn't show any running, but the one-fixed camera angle doesn't cover the entire jail holding area. What KIRO 7 can verify is Cobane appears upset in the video, then advances into Rengo's small cell for an animated verbal exchange.
KIRO 7 heard about the holding cell video eight months ago, but Seattle police refused to release it to us citing the ongoing investigations into Cobane's alleged misconduct. We finally obtained it anyway.
The jail video will likely be entered as evidence at Rengo's assault trial scheduled for next month.
Late Thursday night, the Seattle Police Department issued this statement: "This incident occurred in April of 2010. The detective in question has been administratively reassigned since May of 2010 pending the completion of an on-going internal investigation."
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