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Show Police accused of 'excessive force L BY SHERRIE EINFELDT AND DONETA GATHERUM LAYTON-The quiet atmosphere of the West Layton onion fields was disturbed the night of Sept. 6 when narcotics officers representing several law enforcement agencies entered an onion field and the home of a migrant farm worker's family. The purpose for the presence of the WeberMorgan Narcotics Strike Force, the Davis County Metro Strike Force, Ogden City Police and Layton City Police officers in west Layton was to serve an arrest warrant war-rant on Reuben Gutierrez and to execute ex-ecute an "open entry" warrant on the Gutierrez home. Gutierrez has been under investigation in-vestigation for allegedly receiving stolen goods by the Ogden Police Department for about two and a half months. Det. Mike Ashment headed the Ogden Police investigation. The WeberMorgan Narcotics Strike Force became involved when the allegedly stolen goods were exchanged for narcotics. According to Layton Police Chief, Doyle Talbot, the city and county law enforcement officers were asked to assist with the serving serv-ing of the search and arrest warrants. war-rants. Besides man-power, Layton City contributed vehicles and the Davis Metro Strike Force contributed con-tributed a van to this undercover operation. Migrant farm workers who were interviewed, but asked that their names not be used in the story, stated the van entered the onion I field, belonging to Dan Layton, at excessive speed, knocking over sacks of onions and crushing other onions that were lying on the surface sur-face of the field waiting to be sacked. sack-ed. Gutierrez was quickly subdued without offering any resistance. Eyewitnesses claim he was sub- ! jected to "excessive force" and ! abusive language including racial slurs. About 30 other workers who See Police A-3 1 i I - A ' & m4"1 I ' 1 I J' t'-f w f ' I I ""J ' "' " I I I-h I ' f JSSiM Thirty migrant workers were re- I rl 1 quired to drop to the ground as I ' - ... . 1 I Narcotics Strike Force officers I ,s T-- I arrested one man. Eyewitnesses I . Xa - Z-t- claim the arrest was made with I "excessive force." The onion I f ' - .. J'--,;k:, field where the arrest took place ,; - J is owned by Don Layton. mmmmmtammmmmmm Police Cont. from A-1 were in the field topping onions were required to drop to the ground. The knives they used for topping were taken. The laborers claim the knives were never returned to them. Lt. Steve Turner of the WeberMorgan Narcotics Strike Force said the knives were left in a pile in the field. Eyewitnesses state the undercover under-cover officers made no attempt to identify themselves. These same individuals say the property owner was repeatedly told to ' ' shut up' ' by the officers. He, too, was required to lie face-down on the ground. Doyle Talbot, Layton City Police Chief, said it is standard procedure to "contain other people in the area until police determine who is who and what is what ' ' The suspect was transported to his home in a Clearfield City police car that responded when the officers at the scene called for a transport vehicle. Gutierrez was then taken to the Weber County Jail, where he was arraigned. In executing the search warrant at the home, family members, including in-cluding young children, were taken into the living room of the home. Judy Gutierrez, the wife of the suspect, was kept separate from I other family members in the kit- I chen. She stated this was upsetting because drug dogs were used in the search. They frightened the children I who didn't understand what was I happening. Gutierrez's 15 year-old son was putting an antenna on a pickup truck that was in a field at the rear of a mobile home parked near the main house. He stated he was told to "freeze and drop," a posture he assumed for about 10 minutes. People who were in the trailer and the home at the time the search Thirty migrant workers were required re-quired to drop to the ground as Narcotics Strike Force officers arrested one man. Eyewitnesses claim the arrest was made with "excessive force." The onion field where the arrest took place is owned by Don Layton. was being conducted indicated the q contents of drawers were dumped in c the middle of the room and left, o Other articles that were searched fi were not replaced or carefully p handled. C Clearfield and members of the Layton City Council. Lyndia Graham, a Layton City council woman, said, "more disturbing distur-bing than the destruction of an onion crop is the way it appears the police involved treated citizens." Dan Layton stated, "I feel confident confi-dent that the elected officials will satisfactorily make amends for the incident to ensure an incident of this nature doesn't happen again. I believe these leaders are competent and capable." quartered in the living room, these officers used their car phones to order ten pizzas and soft drinks from a local pizza delivery company. com-pany. These were consumed in the Gutierrez home by the officers who left behind the empty boxes and drink containers. Dan Layton, the owner of the onion field and the employer of the farm labor crew, has written a letter of complaint to Layton mayor, James Layton. Copies were also sent to the mayors of Syracuse and All eyewitnesses interviewed claimed the police made no attempt to identify themselves or state the purpose for their intrusion. After the suspect was transported to Weber County, members of the Ogden Police Department remained in the Gutierrez home. According to family members who were |