Retired Palo Alto police sergeant pleads guilty after video captured violent arrest

There is no mention here whether Wayne (The Fuse) Benitz, was allowed to keep or not keep his nearly $10,000 a month retirement. His retirement could and should have been ended with this guilty plea. He was allowed to resign before a decision was made on the PAPD's investigation of his case which allowed him to retain his right to retirement. Thank goodness D.A. Rosen was eventually pressured into criminally charging Benitz.

Gennady - can you check the status of his retirment?

This guy was a Sargeant and as such, trained and was a model for newer officers. He not only beat Alvarez's head bloody, knocking out a tooth while he was cuffed and unresisting, he then out-and-out lied about this use of excessive force by not reporting it as required. Other officers who witnessed the excessive force neither intervened nor reported it as required.

This resulted in a year-and-a-half long coverup by the PAPD in which then Police Chief Bob Jonsen maintained even he knew nothing about it. Council and the public sure didn't know until a video was blasted over Bay Area TV stations, smearing Palo Alto's reputation, and a federal civil rights lawsuit was successfully settled.

All and all, he seems to be getting off lightly given his brutatlity which is a shame. Good riddence to Benitz. Our City is a better place without him. He ignored our laws and Constitution, and the PAPD's own policies, which If they don't apply to all of us, they apply to none of us.

@Comment above is absolutely right about Benitez aka "The Fuse" being allowed to keep his pension. As reported elsewhere, this is because his crimes were classified as misdemeanors!

How often did our fair city officials refuse to answer questions about whether he was allowed to resign and/or whether he was going to get to collect his pension? WAY too many.

At the very least he and those who decided WE should pay him that should at least claw back the damages that we had to pay for his misconduct and the city soft-pedaling his crimes.

He should be sued for the $572,500 plus interest that the City of Palo Alto had to pay. This could be done by taking his retirement pay until paid off.

It is sad that he did not go to jail for his bad behavior, but what is done is done.

It took 5 years to come to this conclusion?! Glad he is not serving time. No one wants to be a policeman, it’s so dangerous. We should be grateful for them keeping us safe. The man was resisting arrest, that always turns up the heat. Think how upsetting it is when someone isn’t listening to you. To the critics, don’t call the police when you need them if you think you can do a better job.

If you're resisting arrest, you have no one to blame but yourself. Quit committing crimes and quit resisting arrest. Problem solved.

Under the 8-cant-wait reforms, Palo Alto police officers have a duty to intervene to protect citizens who are being subjected to police brutality. I'm still waiting to find out how that policy was applied to the two cops found a sleeping man and let their K-9 chew on him for (IIRC) two minutes.

Very glad to see accountability in the Alvarez case.

So having a suspended license warrants a violent arrest? The resisting arrest charges were dropped because that's what happens when you're a cop and you think nobody will ever see this, only to find out there's video of you beating the snot out of someone who was driving with a suspended license -- you drop the charges unless you want a civil rights lawsuit to cost the city 5 million instead of 500k. Justice is not just slow here, it's absolutely stagnant.