California police officer has been charged with three misdemeanors for a car accident he reportedly tried to blame on an unknown car thief, according to court records.
Arrizon, 31, of Oakland, was charged with three minor counts of hit and run after the crash on August 3. Even though the cops say Arrizon lied on the report after the accident, he will not be charged with that crime.
No one was hurt in the crash, but witnesses said Arrizon’s 2016 Chevy Silverado was driving badly down 69th Avenue, hitting several fixed things, such as stop signs and parked cars. Then it hit a tree and pulled it into the street. Each minor charge seems to be related to a different thing that Arrizon is said to have hit.
Arrizon is said to have gotten out of the Chevy and run away after the accident. He later said he jumped fences on his way to his nearby home. This is when Arrizon called 911 and said that an angry driver had stolen his car with a gun.
Police say that Arrizon’s general description of the car thief was eerily close to his own general description. The carjacking was also not explained by other evidence.
People who saw the crash and people who live in the area say they never saw an armed robbery happen that day, and police say that no video footage from the area showed it either.
In 2018, Arrizon was charged with going over 100 miles per hour while drunk. Prosecutors in Alameda County charged him with a crime and said his blood alcohol level was too high at the time. It’s not clear what happened with the case; local media never reported on it again, and it’s no longer in the court’s record.
In court papers, an Oakland police investigator said that Arrizon was identified from surveillance video of the crash and eyewitnesses. The investigator also said, “I am familiar with Arrizon having previously investigated him for other offenses and have had multiple face-to-face contacts with him.”
The next court date for Arrizon is November 7, and records show that he is not in jail. He is the 171st graduate of the police school in 2016 and the first person from that class to be charged with a crime.
In 2016, Officer Brian Bunton was arrested on felony obstruction of justice and misdemeanor engaging in an act of prostitution charges connected to the Celeste Guap sex exploitation scandal. Even though he quit the police force, his case was thrown out of court in September 2017.
Matthew Santos, a rookie officer, was fired in 2016 while he was still on probation for reportedly threatening a man who was painting his apartment door with a gun.
A lawsuit was brought by the family of an Alameda County probation officer who was allegedly beaten up by another drunk police officer in December 2015. Officer Trevor Stratton was put on paid leave and named in the lawsuit.
This year, the Bureau of Cannabis Control raided a property that another member of the 171st, Samson Liu, owned in Antioch and found a big marijuana grow house there. Liu was then investigated.
Authorities say that Liu was not prosecuted by the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office because there wasn’t enough proof. Several law enforcement officials say that Liu was recently arrested in Daly City on suspicion of domestic violence.
