Orange County has agreed to pay $250,000 to a man punched by a sheriff’s deputy until he collapsed after he was found sleeping in his truck in Stanton.

The Board of Supervisors approved the excessive-force settlement on a 4-1 vote Tuesday, May 10, with Don Wagner dissenting.

Mohamed Sayem was pummeled by Deputy Michael Devitt in the early morning hours of Aug. 19, 2018, in an alley outside the Corner Pocket bar.

Dash-cam footage of the incident obtained by the Southern California News Group shows an apparently intoxicated Sayem asking Devitt and his partner, Eric Ota, if they were going to shoot him. Sayem by then was laying on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind his back.

“Like to,” Ota responds.

Former Sheriff Sandra Hutchens at the time released a video on Twitter assuring the public that the arrest of Sayem on a felony charge of resisting an officer with threat of violence was done by the book. Sayem ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of delaying an officer, which carried no jail time.

Hutchens called the allegations of excessive force “egregious,” saying, “My deputy is not on trial, the suspect is on trial for assaulting a peace officer.”

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has released a video message in response to egregious allegations made by a public defender regarding a deputy’s arrest of a suspect. pic.twitter.com/WzsMabPAJ6

— OC Sheriff, CA (@OCSheriff) October 19, 2018

Litigation in the Sayem case led to the revelation by a county watchdog, the Office of Independent Review, in August 2021 that only 2% of all deputy contacts involving use of force are investigated by Internal Affairs. Most received a cursory review by a supervisor.

According to the dash-cam video and court records, the confrontation unfolded as Devitt and Ota questioned Sayem in the predawn darkness, asking him for his identification. Sayem appears not to understand and jokes with the deputies.

At one point, Devitt pushes against Sayem’s arm in an apparent attempt to keep him inside the vehicle.

“Don’t touch me like that,” Sayem snaps at Devitt. The deputy then appears to grab Sayem, who holds onto the steering wheel, and yanks him out of the vehicle. Devitt repeatedly punches Sayem until the suspect collapses. Ota appears to help restrain Sayem.

Devitt’s supervisor, Sgt. Christopher Hibbs, arrives at the scene and is told by Devitt that he pulled the suspect out of the vehicle and Sayem tried to bear hug him. The conversation is caught on the sergeant’s body microphone.

Later, Devitt wrote in his official report — which was approved by Hibbs — that Sayem got out of the vehicle and grabbed the deputy’s vest.

“Due to his aggressive demeanor … I believed Sayem was going to continue to try and physically assault me,” Devitt reported.

The official report does not contain Ota’s statement that he would “like to” shoot Sayem.

In an earlier case, Sgt. Hibbs was charged with a felony after Tasing a handcuffed man in the backseat of a patrol car in 2007. The case was hobbled by the reluctance of other deputies to testify. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Hibbs after a jury voted 11-1 to acquit him, resulting in a mistrial.

Related Articles