In Bakersfield, a muted response to beating by deputies

She declined to give her name, saying, “I can’t. They came to my house. At first the officer was very polite, very professional…. But when I told him, ‘No, I don’t want to talk to you,’ he said, ‘Is anyone in your house on probation?’ And my — well, it was a threat.”

The night of the beating, sheriff’s deputies detained two people in their home and told them they couldn’t leave until they handed over their cellphones. Witnesses said both phones had video of the beating shot from about 20 feet away.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood asked the FBI to join the investigation after he was told one of the phones did not have video on it. “Our credibility is at stake here,” he told The Times.

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