Please Note: Ricardo Alfonso Cerna has been determined to be an immigrant from Guatemala and not Mexico. The Mexican Consulate has left the case. See "Gun given to suspect by San Bernardino Sheriff's to commit suicide in interrogation room"
by ALTA CALIFORNIA : Coverup of the Execution of a Mexican
by the S.B. Sheriff's Speculated
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de AztlanLos Angeles, Alta California - December 22, 2003 - (ACN) On Saturday, La Voz de Aztlan published and sent out a news bulletin titled "San Bernardino, California Cops Execute Mexican Man in Custody" in which we reported the arrest of Ricardo Alfonso Cerna for the shooting injury of San Bernardino Sheriff's Deputy Michael Parham on Friday. We reported that soon after a routine traffic stop of Cerna by Deputy Parham that Cerna came out of his vehicle, shot Deputy Parham and ran. An "officer down call" was broadcast through police channels and at least two police agencies responded; the San Bernardino City Police and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's. According to witnesses, Ricardo Alfonso Cerna was found on the front lawn of a home in the neighborhood, tackled to the ground and handcuffed. Witnesses said that Cerna was searched for weapons and narcotics, a routine procedure, then put in the back seat of a police squad car and transported to the main San Bernardino Sheriff's Station.
It is at this point that events became bizarre and surreal pointing to a vigilante execution of Ricardo Alfonso Cerna by angry vengeful cops inside the interrogation room of the Sheriff's headquarters. The S.B. Sheriff's version of the death of Cerna, by a bullet to his head, is that the police officers who originally arrested Cerna missed detecting a very large and heavy caliber .45 handgun in the left front pocket of Cerna's pants. Also they explained that officers inside the jail missed detecting the large caliber handgun in Cerna's pocket during routine pre-booking and pre-interrogation procedures.
All police enforcement agencies in the USA do thorough searches for weapons of suspects, even non-violent ones, during the arrest and then again as the first thing before booking. The first procedure inside the police stations is to "strip" search the suspects and have them remove their shoes, give up their belts and watches and especially their wallets in order to attempt to identify them. Remember, Ricardo Alfonso Cerna had just shot an officer with a gun and routine procedures call for the arresting and investigating officers to make every effort to find the crime weapon! The San Bernardino Sheriff's said that while Ricardo Alfonso Cerna was being interrogated by a Sheriff's detective, and that as the detective left the interrogation room for a "cup of coffee", that Cerna reached to his left front pocket and "magically" produced the much sought .45 gun he used to shoot the deputy. They said that he then raised the gun to his left temple and blew his brains out.
Hold on folks! This story gets even more bizarre and surreal. The S.B. Sheriff's say the whole thing was caught on video tape. As proof that Cerna committed suicide, the Sheriff's supposedly invited 10 local news reporters, leaders of local Latino groups and three officials of the local Mexican Consulate to view the tape in order to "quash any questions regarding the department's treatment of Hispanic subjects." The problem is, La Voz de Aztlan nor anyone else we have talked to know of any "local leaders of Latino groups" who viewed the tape. This statement was attributed to Sheriff Chief Gary Penrod but Chip Patterson, Public Information Officer for the S.B. Sheriff's, says that there were only two showings of the video, the first was to Mexican Vice-Consul Carlos Gerault and two other consulate attaches and the second showing was to 10 reporters. Mr. Patterson said that he was not aware that any leaders of local Latino groups viewed the video tape!
It gets even stranger! We were only able to find three reporters of the ten which Chip Patterson said viewed the tape, but none want to talk about what they saw in the tape. All three are reporters for the conservative and extremely "law and order" Press-Enterprise of Riverside County. Two of these reporters are Latinos who actually write for the Spanish language weekly put out by the Press-Enterprise called "La Prensa". Roberto Cruz of our publication spoke with the Editor of La Prensa this morning. She informed Mr. Cruz that two of her reporters viewed the tape and gave their names but when Mr. Cruz contacted the first reporter, she clamped up and did not say a word and hung up. In the USA, journalists, and especially Latinos, are very fearful to write against the police for fear of ruinning their careers. Mr. Cruz then contacted the second reporter who the Editor of La Prensa said had viewed the tape but he said he did not view it and only knew of the case from what he read in the newspaper. La Voz de Aztlan knows for a fact that at least 6 reports on the news wire on the purported suicide of Ricardo Alfonso Cerna and on what was on the tape were actually prepared from a written description of the tape given to the reporters by the S.B. Sheriff's.
The Vice-Consul Carlos Gerault of the Mexican Consulate who also supposedly viewed the tape has not returned our call. We wonder why the Mexican Consulate has not made a public statement on the case. One reason may be that Ricardo Alfonso Cerna may in fact be from Guatemala per Chip Patterson of the S.B Sheriff's, in which case the Mexican Consulate would wash its hands from the whole affair.
Another bizzare twist in the case came this morning to La Voz de Aztlan in the form of an e-mail from a spokesperson of the wife of Ricardo Alfonso Cerna. The Cerna family is apparently looking for legal representation. They do not believe the story put forth by the San Bernardino Sheriff's concerning the death of Ricardo Alfonso Cerna. They think there is a lot more to this incident than what the S.B. Sheriff's are telling.
La Voz de Aztlan, believes that it would be in the interest of the public to release to a wider audience the video showing the purported suicide by Cerna. It is inconceivable to many citizens that trained police officers would miss a large, heavy and bulky handgun in one of the front pockets of Cerna's pants or anywhere on his body. What Cerna did is an inexcusable crime, but the suspicious circumstances in which the .45 caliber handgun suddenly appeared in the interoggation room points to a serious malfeasance by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's.
