HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Police Department will be asked questions by the 37th Guam Legislature at an oversight hearing Wednesday afternoon about complaints against police officers.
In the past five months, Sen. Chris Barnett, the public safety committee chair, has been working on calling an oversight hearing for GPD, primarily to discuss an apparent increase in complaints against officers.
According to Post files, Barnett first announced that he would be calling an oversight hearing after hearing reports from an elderly couple, Veronica and John Patao, who shared with The Guam Daily Post in September 2023 their experiences when following up on an assault complaint they filed at GPD’s Dededo precinct against a person known to them.
Barnett told the Post scheduling issues had delayed the hearing.
“This specific oversight hearing on GPD (is) on the agenda. … I’m looking at some of the training protocols, … and some of the complaints against officers. This is a hearing I’ve been trying to have since last year, but we just had a bunch of scheduling issues with (Chief Stephen Ignacio) and trying to get the whole command staff in the same place at the same time,” Barnett said.
The oversight hearing is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Items on the agenda include the number of complaints received in the past year, complaints received versus investigations closed, procedure for complaints and protocol for officer arrests.
Complaints
The Pataos’ complaint described Veronica Patao allegedly having a table pushed up against her chest by a police officer before she hit her head on the ground and had a seizure. Veronica Patao recounted how the officer in question, and possibly others, were yelling profanities at her, saying she was “faking” the seizure.
Meanwhile, her husband, John Patao, was kept in a separate holding cell for about nine hours while Veronica Patao was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Veronica and John Patao, who both have said they have several medical ailments, were arrested, and Veronica Patao was booked and confined before ultimately being released.
While the Pataos’ complaint was investigated by GPD’s Internal Affairs Section, police said, the investigation was confirmed to have been completed in December 2023.
Another police brutality claim was investigated in connection to the arrest of Joshua Paul Taitano on Aug. 22, 2023.
Court documents stated that before being apprehended, Taitano was driving a motorcycle and evading police in Dededo, then jumped off his motorcycle and attempted to climb the gate of a residence and attempted to resist arrest by “pulling his arms away from the officers and kicking his feet.”
However, home surveillance footage appeared to show that Taitano, while still on his motorcycle, was hit by one of two patrol cars following him, which caused him to fall to the ground. Then the officer who drove the car stopped, immediately exited his vehicle, ran toward Taitano and tackled him up against the gate of a residence.
Three other officers appeared to restrain Taitano, who was brought to the ground and surrounded by officers in the video. Taitano was escorted to a patrol car minutes later, the video showed.
Taitano had a black sling pouch on him which contained two baggies of methamphetamine and a glass pipe, police alleged, as reported in a magistrate’s complaint filed in the Superior Court of Guam.
