CSO threatens Santa Ana PD with lawsuit: ‘Stop hiding death of Freddie Washington’

Santa Ana, CA – On Monday, June 15, Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) served a demand letter to the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) and the city of Santa Ana threatening to sue if they do not immediately start producing records of the in-custody death of Freddie DeAngelo Washington.

Despite multiple public records act requests, SAPD has only produced a tiny handful of records, and none in over a year. This is far fewer records than SAPD has released in other cases. These delays give the impression that SAPD is hiding something, because what the public already knows about the brutality of the case is shocking.

Back on January 15, 2025, six SAPD officers broke into Washington’s hotel room and arrested him. As two officers pinned him to bed, one officer punched Washington in the back of the head twice. Police wrestled him to the ground, threatened to tase him, and tied down his arms and legs using a restraint device called “the wrap.” According to the police report, later that night Washington was put in a restraint chair and placed in a cell at Santa Ana Jail.

At least one officer with a prior history of violence can be identified in the arrest footage: Isaac Ibarra, who helped with the arrest and helped prepare the restraint device for Freddie Washington. Ibarra was one of the officers who killed unarmed 31-year-old Noe Rodriguez in 2024, shooting him 11 times and lying about what Rodriguez was doing before the shooting.

In Santa Ana Jail the day after Freddie Washington’s arrest, he fainted and officers placed him on his side. When Washington woke and flailed his legs, police violently pinned him to the tile floor with their knees for almost four minutes. Washington was tied down to a restraint chair, hooded with a spit mask and put back in a cell. Public Information Officer Natalie Garcia said that “at some point, jail staff determined the suspect did not appear to be breathing.” He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.

As of Tuesday June 16, SAPD Records Division deleted public messages from the website, but CSO OC members preserved these records beforehand.

Meanwhile, the family of Freddie Washington has been left in the dark. Washington’s sister, Moesha Hightower, described him as “a country boy from Aitken, South Carolina who loved to cook, to travel, and to take care of his daughter.” In fact, SAPD incorrectly stated Washington was from Ventura County when he was in California to fight for custody of his daughter.

Washington’s mother, Beatrice Hightower, said he was “a family man and an honest child who helped Beatrice and his sisters.” She misses him bitterly and said she had to bury Washington on his birthday. Washington’s family demands justice for his death and for the officers involved to be held accountable.

Six years since the racist killing of George Floyd by killer cop Derek Chauvin, the brutality of Washington’s arrest and death by SAPD speaks for itself. This was another racist killing, and SAPD cannot be trusted to carry out investigations into their own officers.

This is why CSO OC fights for community control of the police. The public has a basic right to decide on police matters where they live, including how in-custody deaths are investigated and how police are held accountable for acts of brutality.

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