Scott Sanders<\/a>, representing a man arrested by Suarez, alleges the department violated disclosure laws by withholding Suarez\u2019s own arrest in Georgia. That information could be used to challenge Suarez\u2019s credibility as well as the evidence he collected in this and other cases.<\/p>\n\u201cDefendants were entitled to discovery detailing the officer\u2019s conduct, as an assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury has been considered a crime of moral turpitude for nearly forty years,\u201d said a motion filed Sept. 8 by Sanders. He is seeking a court order for Long Beach to release Suarez\u2019s personnel file. Suarez resigned from the department in June.<\/p>\n
Sanders said he learned of the Atlanta conviction only after his investigator tried to track down Suarez to serve him a subpoena.<\/p>\n
Long Beach police officials responded in a statement that officer personnel files are released according to \u201capplicable law and department policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLBPD takes allegations of misconduct and criminal activity seriously,\u201d said the statement. \u201cIf the department becomes aware of a criminal investigation or a policy violation involving an employee, an investigation is conducted into the matter. All allegations are thoroughly investigated to ensure our personnel are upholding the values and policies of our department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lippelt said he was told by Georgia prosecutors that Long Beach police officials had been informed of the attack and he believed Suarez would be quickly disciplined. But every year Lippelt checked an internet site listing the salary of public employees, and every year he found the officer was still being paid.<\/p>\n
Lippelt said he wasn\u2019t quite sure why Suarez became violently angry that Atlanta night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very random,\u201d he said. \u201c(The Dodgers) lost that day. Maybe he was mad about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lippelt said he and his friends were walking out the door of the Waffle House after eating, when Suarez \u2014 who was waiting for a table \u2014 muttered something to him.<\/p>\n
Lippelt said he didn\u2019t hear whatever was said, so he leaned closer to Suarez and asked him to repeat it. Suarez said something again. Lippelt still couldn\u2019t hear it. Suarez said something a third time and balled his fists, Lippelt recalled.<\/p>\n
Lippelt said he told Suarez to \u201cf\u2014 off\u201d and walked out the door with his friends. Suarez followed with his buddies and the two groups began fighting, Lippelt said. Soon he was on his back, getting beat by Suarez.<\/p>\n
Cobb County police arrived and found Suarez walking down the road, his nose bleeding and his jersey stained with blood. He told officers that someone had started a fight with him at the restaurant and punched him in the face. Suarez said he walked away from the scene after a Waffle House employee told him to leave, according to the Cobb County police report.<\/p>\n
Lippelt sustained an orbital fracture, a fracture of the maxillary sinus, a traumatic orbital hematoma and a concussion, according to Atlanta court documents. The indictment said Suarez seriously disfigured Lippelt\u2019s right eye, rendering it \u201cuseless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally indicted on two felony counts of aggravated battery \u2014 each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years \u2014 Suarez pleaded on the eve of trial to misdemeanor battery with no jail time. He received 12 months probation, was ordered to pay Lippelt $500 in restitution and was banned from Cobb County, court records say.<\/p>\n
Lippelt said he was disappointed by the plea deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of mad. This guy and his friends almost killed me and they gave him a slap on the wrist,\u201d Lippelt said. \u201cI feel the eye has trouble focusing and, to this day, I get vertigo, which started from (the beating).\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorney Sanders said there are other ramifications from the attack. He said the alleged coverup by Long Beach police officials could affect hundreds of cases in which Suarez was involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ramifications are immensely consequential: the concealment of Officer\u00a0Suarez\u2019s arrest and prosecution enabled the agency to hide mandated discovery\u00a0related to Officer Suarez\u2019s conduct from what have likely been hundreds of\u00a0defendants,\u201d Sanders wrote in a court motion.<\/p>\n
Sanders further accused the Police Department of hiding evidence of other officer misconduct in personnel files instead of reporting them to the District Attorney\u2019s Office as part of the prosecutors\u2019 Brady file, which is discoverable. Brady refers to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision mandating that prosecutors hand over exculpatory evidence to defendants.<\/p>\n
The department responded in an email that it cooperates with the District Attorney\u2019s Office as required by law.<\/p>\n
Sanders is representing Lonnie Jacobs, who was arrested by Suarez and another officer in March 2025 for brandishing a firearm against a man attempting to repossess a van. Jacobs also was charged with possessing a bindle of cocaine in his sock at the jail. Jacobs, 47, was only charged with the drug violation.<\/p>\n
Sanders alleged that Suarez and the other officer hid evidence that showed they lacked probable cause to arrest Jacobs in the first place. For one thing, the victim said the suspect had braids. Jacobs is bald.<\/p>\n
Sanders said there are likely other cases involving other officers in which evidence was withheld from defendants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you withhold Brady, it can affect many, many cases and we are just at the beginning,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThis is infuriating. Long Beach Police Department knew they had to turn it over and they didn\u2019t. The reality is many, many defendants were denied a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Lippelt can still hear the words of an intoxicated, off-duty Long Beach police officer pummeling him outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[723,734,131,133,132,100,1492,24836,136],"class_list":["post-470083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-crime","tag-law-enforcement","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-socal-watchdog","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470083","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=470083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}