Driver’s claims of harassment and retaliation in traffic stop ‘patently false’

Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram said Thursday that his deputies “did nothing wrong” while conducting a Feb. 9 traffic stop involving a man who last month reached a $1.3 million settlement with the county after being mauled by a sheriff’s dog in a 2020 arrest.

Engram’s statement was made in a video posted on the department’s Facebook page Thursday afternoon, a day after The Press Democrat published a story about the traffic stop involving Jason Anglero-Wyrick.

Engram criticized the story, calling it “a biased article that perpetuates a narrative that deputies mistreat people of color.”

“This narrative harms our community and discourages people of color to trust deputies, and it tarnishes the good work the people of the Sheriff’s Office do every day,” he said in the video.

The Sheriff’s Office repeatedly rejected Press Democrat requests to publicly release body-worn camera footage of the 56-minute stop on River Road. On Thursday, however, the agency posted 41 minutes of the encounter on its Facebook page.

The video depicts an angry and frustrated Anglero-Wyrick and his wife, using profanity at times, repeatedly pleading for help from passing motorists on the busy road, and demanding to know why they were stopped.

The footage shows that deputies put Anglero-Wyrick in handcuffs and placed him in the back of a patrol car before taking him out of the car to allow for medical treatment during what he said was the onset of a panic attack.

The traffic stop ends when Anglero-Wyrick is released from custody with a citation for an unsafe lane change and driving on a suspended license.

Anglero-Wyrick, who is Black, told The Press Democrat he believed the traffic stop was retaliation for the settlement. The couple were in separate vehicles — Anglero-Wyrick in the front car, his wife trailing in a moving truck — on their way out of the county for good when the deputy pulled him over.

He called it a “setup” and said he had feared for his life.

Engram defended the department’s response in his short video statement.

“To be clear, our deputies did nothing wrong on this traffic stop,” he said.

Engram responded to Anglero-Wyrick’s claims of retaliation, saying, “I pledge to hold my deputies accountable when they do something wrong. I will also protect them against false allegations and misconduct. These allegations of harassment and retaliation are patently false.”

The stop came five weeks after the settlement of Anglero-Wyrick’s 2021 excessive force lawsuit stemming from an encounter with sheriff’s deputies April 4, 2020, outside his Graton home.

He was stunned with a Taser by a deputy and mauled by a K-9 that ignored another deputy’s commands to release Anglero-Wyrick.

The 90-second attack left Anglero-Wyrick with long-term injuries that required multiple surgeries.

After initially charging him with resisting arrest in that case, prosecutors dropped the charges, citing insufficient evidence.