Oakland officer arrested for alleged assault

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - Four Oakland officers are on paid administrative leave after an incident that occurred on December 7th.

According to police, one of the officers was arrested for assault on the night of the incident. All of the officers were off-duty at the time of the incident. 

 It all started at Monaghan's Bar in the Oakland Hills on December 7.

Sources say a group of off-duty Oakland police officers was drinking when they decided to go to one of the officer's homes about a mile away.

But officer Cullen Faeth apparently got left behind and got lost on the way there. He ended up on the wrong street and showed up at a home belonging to an Alameda County Deputy probation officer.

Faeth, allegedly drunk, is accused of jumping on and attacking a woman at the home. A defense source says the officer just hugged her.

Police arrested Faeth on suspicion of assault and public intoxication, but no formal charges have been filed.

Faeth and three other officers who had been together that night are on administrative leave.

Oakland police declined to go on camera but issued a statement that said it "takes all allegations of misconduct involving our employees seriously. Ensuring internal investigations are swift, fair and objective is our priority."

The family in the case is represented by noted Civil Rights Attorney John Burris. They appeared at a Wednesday afternoon news conference, where the woman, who requested only to be identified by the family’s surname— Cortez, claims she was traumatized and has accused the department of a cover up in a claim filed against the department today.

The victim is an Alameda County deputy probation officer. She said her and her husband were home at the time with their two teenage daughters when the alleged attack happened.

The mother described being in the shower when she heard knocking on the door that became incessantly louder. She eventually and abruptly exited the shower to answer the door.  At least one officer was described as being “very aggressive”, while another officer was said to have gone to the back yard.

Burris claimed the woman was physically “manhandled”, but that the husband got involved was able to hold one of the officers down. Burris and the family claim the two daughters were crying during the ordeal and that the family felt they were being “terrorized” by people they didn’t know during a home invasion and that they were made to feel they had done something wrong.