This article is the first in a three-part series detailing the Palo Alto Police Department's actions to investigate a violent 2018 arrest by its officers, penalize those involved and then defend its actions when its decision was appealed.

PART 1: THE DECISION

On Sept. 1, 2021, former Palo Alto Police Agent Thomas DeStefano received a letter from then-Police Chief Robert Jonsen informing him that he was being fired.

The action came more than two years after department began its probe into the conduct of DeStefano and other officers who were involved in the infamous Feb. 17, 2018, arrest of Gustavo Alvarez at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park, a low-income neighborhood along El Camino Real tucked back behind a strip mall.

That arrest ultimately triggered an internal-affairs investigation, a civil lawsuit against the city and a criminal conviction of a police supervisor.

DeStefano was the second officer to arrive at Buena Vista that evening, after Officer Christopher Conde had followed Alvarez home. Once Alvarez got inside, he refused to come out when ordered to do so by Conde and other officers. A surveillance video that Alvarez's attorney released about a year after the incident showed DeStefano pointing his gun down while the supervising officer, Sgt. Wayne Benitez, kicked down the door of Alvarez's home.

Seconds later, after Alvarez was pulled out of the home and handcuffed, DeStefano stood by while Benitez slammed Alvarez on the hood of Alvarez's car.

Jonsen wrote in his September 2021 letter to DeStefano that the officers' actions justified the penalty of termination. He cited five department policies that DeStefano had violated during the arrest: duty to intercede, reporting the use of force, report corrections, non-criminal activity (which relates to a failure to document the pointed gun), and conduct unbecoming a member of the department.

Jonsen, who is now Santa Clara County sheriff, noted in the termination letter that DeStefano was laughing at the scene of the arrest. And later, DeStefano recounted what happened to Alvarez in a message to another officer, telling him that he "missed out" because "the Fuse was lit," a reference to Benitez's nickname. For emphasis, DeStefano reportedly reenacted Benitez's use of force after the fact by slamming his hand on the hood of the car, Jonsen wrote.

"You failed to document your own use of force, failed to notify a supervisor of excessive force that you witnessed, and then approved reports you knew to be false," Jonsen wrote. "Your conduct was unprofessional and has had an extremely negative impact on the public's trust in the Department. You covered up an unjustified use of force that eventually came to light only because of Mr. Alvarez's home surveillance system and his pursuit of legal claims against the City. For these reasons, termination is the appropriate penalty."

While Palo Alto Online was the first to report in September 2021 that DeStefano is no longer with the Palo Alto Police Department, the city declined to say at that time whether his departure was voluntary. DeStefano himself did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

But with the criminal case against Benitez recently reaching a resolution and all disciplinary hearings associated with the Buena Vista arrest now completed, the department released on Jan. 19 a trove of documents relating to its internal-affairs investigations into both DeStefano and Benitez.

The documents, which include interview transcripts, disciplinary memos and reports from supervising officers were released in response to a Public Records Act request that this publication made in 2020.

Collectively, they paint a clear picture of how the department responded to its most infamous arrest of the past decade. The incident forced the city to pay out a $572,500 settlement to Alvarez, prompted a misdemeanor assault charge against Benitez and led the Police Department to sever ties with DeStefano, an officer who had been with the department since 2005. DeStefano, in addition to the Buena Vista arrest, took the lead in another violent arrest, this one of Julio Arevalo in front of Happy Donuts in July 2019. (The city reached a $150,000 settlement with Arevalo three years later.)

The documents also indicate that DeStefano's record before the Buena Vista incident played a role in his firing. This includes a 2017 episode in which he was caught driving drunk, hitting another vehicle and then leaving the scene – an incident that prompted the department to suspend him for 88 hours. These factors, as well as further analysis of the Buena Vista video evidence, prompted then-Assistant Chief Andrew Binder to recommend DeStefano's termination, a rare occurrence for any law enforcement department.

The documents show that the Police Department had concluded that Benitez's conduct was also worthy of termination and that the only reason he wasn't fired was because he retired during the investigation. In fact, Benitez submitted his letter of resignation three days before he was due to appear for his interview with an internal-affairs officer, a meeting that was twice postponed based on request from Benitez's attorney. When the department tried to interview him once again in September 2019, Benitez's attorney informed the city that he would not participate.

The documents also reveal that police department brass were acutely aware of the damage that the Buena Vista arrest had on public perception of local police operations. They were eager to regain community trust. The investigation took place during a period in which Palo Alto and other communities across the nation were demanding more police accountability. The killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer in May 2020 sparked demonstrations, locally and nationally, and prompted Palo Alto to revise the department's use-of-force policies and expand the purview of the city's independent police auditor.

The court documents also illustrate the many hurdles that departments have to overcome in disciplining officers, including a binding arbitration clause that allows officers to appeal their firing to a third-party reviewer.

Even though the Buena Vista arrest occurred six years ago and DeStefano was officially fired in 2021, that decision didn't become final until Oct. 19, 2023, when an arbitrator rejected his grievance and concluded that the department had "just cause" to terminate.

Police Chief Andrew Binder, who served as a captain and then assistant police chief during most of the investigation, said in a statement that the police department "has moved forward considerably since this incident nearly six years ago." 

"The unreasonable force and dishonesty in this case are not representative of the work done on a daily basis by the men and women who proudly wear the badge of the Palo Alto Police Department," Binder said in a statement.

"Our Department is committed to providing exceptional public safety service, and our personnel will continue to showcase our core values of integrity, accountability, trust, teamwork, a positive attitude and the professional, impartial treatment of all."

• Read part 2 of this series: The reckoning, part 2: How Palo Alto police investigated their own following a violent 2018 arrest

• Coming tomorrow: In part 3 of "The reckoning," read about how top brass faced hurdles to disciplining their officers.