![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Palomares-Affidavit-and-POST-profile-copy.png\")
<\/p>\nA federal criminal defense attorney said there was a chance that cases worked on by San Pasqual Tribal Police Chief Christoper Palomares, could face legal challenges \u2013 potentially even overturning past convictions.<\/p>\n
That comes less than a day after NBC 7 Investigates reported on a controversial September 2025 traffic stop involving Palomares, who was a corporal at the time. During that incident, body worn camera video shows Palomares press his gun to the neck of a handcuffed 15-year-old boy.<\/p>\n
Though Palomares\u2019 own police report said two ghost guns and a small amount of cocaine were confiscated, none of the four suspects have been prosecuted in the almost eleven months since. The San Diego County District Attorney\u2019s Office told us the San Pasqual Tribal Police never sent them any cases, and the tribe said there was an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
In our first report, NBC 7 Investigates discovered the search warrant affidavit filed by Palomares, involving the suspects\u2019 cell phones, had false information. In that document, Palomares wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2006, your affiant received a Basic Peace Officer Training Certificate from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST)…\u201d<\/p>\n
As a tribal police officer, he\u2019s not required to have a POST certification.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 Investigates obtained Palomares\u2019 records from POST. They reveal that he\u2019s never earned a basic peace officer certificate, which we confirmed with POST.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tNBC 7NBC 7<\/p>\n
On the left, an affidavit search warrant filed by Christopher Palomares indicates he has a basic police officer training certificate from Post. On the right, Palomares’ POST records show he\u2019s never received any certificates.<\/p>\n
POST told us, \u201cHe is not eligible to receive any POST certificates.If he had been appointed as a full-time peace officer, completed a 12-month probationary period, and a Field Training Program at a POST-participating agency, he would have been eligible for a Basic Certificate because he did complete each level of the modular academy. However, he was only hired for four months as a Level II Reserve and therefore was not eligible for a POST certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Palomares and Tribal Chairman Stephen Cope declined our repeated requests to talk about the traffic stop. They also wouldn\u2019t answer questions about the POST certification Palomares wrote about in the search warrant.<\/p>\n
The potential impact on past cases<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Christopher-Palomares-Bureau-Of-Indian-Affairs-ID.png\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tNBC 7NBC 7<\/p>\n
San Pasqual Tribal Police Chief Christopher Palomares’ ID card from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.<\/p>\n
Federal criminal defense attorney Isaac Blumberg watched our first report and the leaked body camera video. He says the ramifications of this traffic stop could jeopardize past criminal cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he’s going to have some serious credibility issues going forward.\u201d Blumberg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blumberg said it could trigger a potential review by the district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
He explained that generally, if an officer is found to have lied to a judge, it could earn them a spot on the Brady List.<\/p>\n
That means prosecutors would have to flag that information to defense attorneys involved in any active cases involving that officer, and go back in time and alert attorneys who worked on any past cases involving the officer. Blumberg said that could prompt those attorneys to challenge convictions for anyone that officer helped convict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be used because then some defense lawyer, if they’re ever cross-examining the officer relevant to their case, they would be allowed to ask, \u2018So you’re saying that this occurred, but previously you said that occurred and that was a lie. So you’ve lied to a judge before,\u2019\u201d Blumberg told us.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 Investigates also reached out to the district attorney\u2019s office to see if they intended to investigate the issue of the false information within the affidavit to determine whether it justified inclusion for the Brady List. a spokesperson shared this statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe credibility of law enforcement is an essential component of the criminal justice system and critical for public trust. While we can\u2019t comment specifically about this case, we take very seriously reports involving officer credibility and always carefully evaluate them in accordance with Brady and other laws.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Previously, a district attorney spokesperson told us that the FBI is investigating the arrest incident captured on the bodycam footage, and the district attorney would review for criminal charges if a case is submitted to their office rather than to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n
The San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office also said the FBI was investigating, though a spokesman for the FBI San Diego Field Office said it wouldn\u2019t confirm the existence of any federal investigation. Though, they said they were aware of the incident.<\/p>\n
The controversial traffic stop<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"NBC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Mathew-Kirby-Jr-gun-to-neck-zoomed-in.png\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tNBC 7NBC 7<\/p>\n
NBC 7 Investigates obtained body worn camera video of San Pasqual Tribal Police\u2019s Christopher Palomares, which appears to show him put a gun to the neck of a handcuffed 15-year-old Mathew Kirby Jr.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 Investigates was given Palomares\u2019 body camera video and case documents for that September stop, which include police reports, evidence forms, a search warrant, and tribal citations.<\/p>\n
Those documents reveal the reason for the traffic stop \u2013 license plate cameras connected the vehicle to being near a drive-by shooting two nights prior. On the night of the traffic stop, Palomares\u2019 report also said the driver ran a stop sign.<\/p>\n
Inside the car were two 19-year-olds and two-15-year-olds, which included Mathew Kirby Jr. After a few minutes of questioning from Palomares, away from his friends, the adult driver revealed there may have been a gun inside the car.<\/p>\n
Palomares then had the other officers remove Kirby Jr. and his friends from the car one-by-one. The video shows each appearing to cooperate with the orders from officers as they were handcuffed, searched, and questioned.<\/p>\n
The tone changed moments later, as the officer searching Kirby Jr. announced he found a handgun on the teen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a gun,\u201d the officer said. \u201cWe got a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palomares was a few feet away, beginning a search of the car. He rushed to join the officer searching Kirby Jr.<\/p>\n
In the video, Palomares draws his own gun and presses it against the 15-year-old\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou move, I\u2019ll [expletive] kill you!\u201d Palomares said. \u201cYou hear me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNBC 7 Investigates obtained body worn camera video of San Pasqual Tribal Police\u2019s Christopher Palomares, which appears to show him put a gun to the neck of a handcuffed 15-year-old.The teen and his family agreed to allow his face to be shown, though we\u2019ve blurred the other suspects\u2019 faces because there\u2019s no evidence any of them were prosecuted.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Kirby Jr.: \u201cI\u2019m a minor by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palomares: \u201cHow old are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirby Jr.: \u201cFifteen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palomares: \u201cOk, well, you\u2019re going to be a dead 15-year-old if you move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirby Jr.: \u201cIs it allowed to tell me that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Palomares: \u201cWhat! What did you say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirby Jr.: \u2018Nothing sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palomares: \u201cGet on the ground! Get on your [expletive] face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he finishes that sentence, the video shows the other officer appear to remove a handgun from Kirby Jr.\u2019s pants. We have not obtained body camera video, if such a video exists, from the officer who appears to remove the gun.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 Investigates asked the department and the tribal chairman for all officer body camera videos from the stop, but they denied our request citing an ongoing investigation into the four suspects.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal criminal defense attorney said there was a chance that cases worked on by San Pasqual Tribal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[734,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-439052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-law-enforcement","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}