Answers sought in officer’s hiring

‘I just don’t feel safe having him on our police department’

Los Gatos residents want to know why a former San Jose State police officer who left the university under a cloud after severely beating a man in the library during the course of an arrest was hired by the Los Gatos police.

After an internal investigation, the university fired the officer, Johnathon Silva, for inflicting serious injuries — including broken ribs and a punctured lung — on a man who was watching pornography on a laptop in the school’s library in March 2016. He also tried to use a Taser on the man, who was apparently mentally ill, but the device malfunctioned.

Silva appealed his dismissal and a state personnel board ordered him to be reinstated over the objection of the university, which argued that the arrest was an “egregious example of excessive force.” A few months later, he resigned and followed the university’s former police chief, Peter

Decena, who had defended his actions, to the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department.

Reports published last week by KQED and The Mercury News on the arrest and Silva’s subsequent move to Los Gatos, troubled hundreds of residents, according to an informal poll posted to the town’s Nextdoor website.

“I just don’t feel safe having him on our police department,” Jacqueline Mutz, a local part-time school teacher who was one of many residents to post comments about Silva, said in an interview with this news organization.

She added, “There are people that live in town that are mentally ill. They’re quiet. A lot of them sit there and talk to themselves, so who knows if there’s a potential situation?”

As of Tuesday morning, 498 residents had responded to an informal poll on Nextdoor, 86% of whom said that they were concerned about Silva’s actions during the 2016 incident and that his hiring should be reviewed, while only 14% said they agreed with the officer’s actions.

Town Manager Laurel Prevetti defended the department’s hiring of Silva, writing in an email that “while the video is disturbing for some viewers to watch, throughout the encounter, the suspect was noncompliant and physically resisted efforts by the officer to place him under arrest, which led to the use of force incident.”

She also referred to Decena’s statement defending Silva’s hiring after the San Jose State University incident was revealed in a trove of documents and police body- camera videos released to the news organizations in accordance with Senate Bill 1421, the state’s new police transparency law. The chief’s statement said Silva was subjected to “a thorough background investigation, including a polygraph examination and psychological screening.”

Prevetti added, “Once hired, the town continues to invest in training, particularly in critical incidents, de- escalation, and sensitivity to persons in crisis. All personnel are held to high standards during their careers with the town.”

Los Gatos’ mayor and vice mayor did not respond to requests for comment.

The poll’s creator, Los Gatos resident Vlado Herman, who has lived in the town since 2004, said he has not had any problems with the police department but thought that Silva’s hiring was worth learning more about.

He was surprised by the poll results.

“I was expecting it to be 50-50,” Herman said. “There are people with opinions on both sides, but most of the people want more answers about this.”

He acknowledged that the poll is not scientific, but he also said the hundreds of responses from voters is worth a more robust public response.

“I’m troubled because of what I saw on the video,” said Maureen Fox, an attorney who lives in Los Gatos, “and the fact that the police chief apparently did not consider that troubling, and in fact hired the officer who displayed such temper.”

Fox wrote an email to city officials airing her concerns, and, she said, Prevetti sent her a “canned response.”

Fox was also concerned that San Jose State University paid out $950,000 to Philip Chong, the victim of the library beating. In 2018, the school settled another suit for $59,900, according to a university spokeswoman, brought by a former student who alleged Silva and another officer smashed his face into the concrete outside a concert knocking him out and breaking his teeth.

“We’re also at risk of having to pay substantial damages if he should treat anyone the same way he treated that individual that he beat,” Fox said, referring to Silva. “And the town really can’t afford to pay the kind of money that might be incurred.”

Prevetti wrote in another email that neither she nor the city shares Fox’s worries about any potential financial liability by having Silva on the police force.

She added that the town is “responding directly to the individuals who have expressed concerns” or otherwise had reached out to officials over the issue.

This story was produced as part of the California Reporting Project, a collaboration of more than 40 newsrooms across the state to obtain and report on police misconduct and use- of-force records unsealed in 2019. Sukey Lewis is a staff writer for KQED News.