Police video backs council member’s account of protest
Spokesperson: Body camera footage shows Clarissa Cervantes leaving courthouse rally minutes after asking question
A Riverside police officer’s description of body camera video appears to at least partly corroborate City Council Member Clarissa Cervantes’ account of what happened the night the historic downtown courthouse was defaced.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has accused Cervantes of backing protesters’ vandalizing of the more-than-century-old regional landmark during an abortion rights rally Saturday night. Cervantes has denied that and demanded an apology.
Speakers at this week’s Riverside City Council meeting, legislators and others echoed her request that the sheriff apologize.
Bianco and Sheriff’s Department spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Riverside Police Department spokesperson Officer Ryan Railsback said Thursday that video recorded by police body cameras shows Cervantes arriving at the courthouse after officers responded to the vandalism report and leaving minutes later after speaking with a sergeant.
“It appeared from the camera that she was coming from the direction of the sidewalk,” Railsback said. “She approached him, inquired about what was going on, he answered the question about what was going and it appeared that she left.”
The video shows “that she arrived after our officers were on scene,” Railsback said. He said officers assigned to patrol downtown received the call concerning damage at the historic building at 8:20 p.m. Saturday and got there minutes later. After responding, police officers turned the matter over to the Sheriff’s Department, which polices county buildings such as the courthouse.
Railsback declined to release the body camera video. This news organization Thursday filed a request with the city through
California’s public records law seeking a copy of the video.
Cervantes, who condemned the defacing, has said she did not participate in the protest and only came across the activity while walking along the street in front of the courthouse after attending the opening of a downtown art gallery with friends. Cervantes said she arrived at 8:35 p.m. and a friend snapped a photo of her walking up the courthouse steps at that time.
Cervantes said she walked up the steps to talk to the sergeant, whom she knew, to find out what was happening, then rejoined her friends and left.
Cervantes said she and friends were walking along Main Street because they were headed to W. Wolfskill, a bar and restaurant located down the street.
Late Saturday, Bianco wrote in a social media post that Cervantes was spotted at the courthouse.
“Shame on the Riverside city councilwoman for supporting the defacing of our courthouse,” he wrote. “You are lucky we couldn’t arrest you.”
Wednesday, three state lawmakers from the Inland Empire issued a joint statement asking Bianco to publicly apologize to Cervantes.
Earlier this week, sheriff’s Sgt. Edward Soto wrote in an email that Cervantes was not arrested “because she did not vandalize the building.”
Soto also has said no apology would be coming from Bianco. Monday, Bianco said in a text message that he could not discuss specifics of the investigation “just because the councilwoman is in damage control mode.”
Sheriff’s deputies arrested eight people on suspicion of felony vandalism and felony conspiracy to commit vandalism in connection with the painting of green handprints on courthouse walls and pillars. Workers tried to wash off the paint this week, but could not remove all of it, a court official said.
Railsback said the video does not show what occurred during the protest before police arrived.