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CRIME

Probe found California officers violated policy in arrest leading to homeless man's 2011 death

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    FILE - In this May 7, 2012 file photo, Fullerton police officer Jay Cicinelli listens to witness testimony during a preliminary hearing in Santa Ana, Calif. Cicinelli and Manuel Ramos policemen who were tried and ultimately acquitted in the beating death of a mentally ill homeless man in 2011 violated department policy on use of force and officer conduct, according to a previously confidential internal report. The report, prepared by an independent investigator, has come to light four years after Kelly Thomas' death as part of the evidence to be introduced at a civil wrongful death trial against the Fullerton Police Department. (Joshua Sudock/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2014 file photo, former Fullerton police officer Manuel Ramos listens to Orange County district attorney Tony Rackauckas' rebuttal closing argument in the case against him and fellow former officer Jay Cicinelli stemming from the death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man, who died after a violent 2011 confrontation with the officers. Ramos and Cicinelli who were tried and ultimately acquitted in the beating death of Thomas in 2011 violated department policy on use of force and officer conduct, according to a previously confidential internal report. The report, prepared by an independent investigator, has come to light four years after Thomas' death as part of the evidence to be introduced at a civil wrongful death trial against the Fullerton Police Department. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Joshua Sudock, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - This July 12, 2011 file photo shows one of the posters of Kelly Thomas posted around the Fullerton Transportation Center in the hopes of eliciting information of a police beating they believe led to the death of Thomas in Fullerton, Calif. Two Southern California policemen who were tried and ultimately acquitted in the beating death of Thomas in 2011 violated department policy on use of force and officer conduct, according to a previously confidential internal report. The report, prepared by an independent investigator, has come to light four years after Thomas' death as part of the evidence to be introduced at a civil wrongful death trial against the Fullerton Police Department. (Joshua Sudock/Orange County Register via AP, File) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT (The Associated Press)

SANTA ANA, Calif. – An internal report found that two Fullerton, California, police officers who were acquitted of criminal wrongdoing in the death of a mentally ill homeless man in 2011 violated their department's use-of-force policy.

The report was not presented to the jury because of state laws protecting the confidentiality of peace officers' disciplinary records.

Kelly Thomas died after a violent struggle with Fullerton Police Department officers in July 2011.

The 2012 report came to light recently after it was included in a legal filing in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Thomas' father against the city, the Police Department and others. That trial is slated for later this month.

A 33-minute surveillance video shows the officers hitting, kneeing and firing an electric stun gun at Thomas as he cries out for his father.