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Deputies Attack Gay Man With Pepper Spray by Lois Pearlman

A Guerneville man says a dinner party for business associates turned into a gay bashing and wrongful arrest when sheriff's deputies arrived to follow up a noise complaint.

According to Richard Gilmore, a home loan consultant with a Santa Rosa company and a Guerneville resident, two deputies from the local substation hit him, slammed him against walls and doors and pepper-sprayed him twice, in his Old Cazadero Road home, after he agreed to turn down the music that they said was causing a public disturbance. A third deputy, a trainee who accompanied Satterwhite, did not participate in the beating.

"He charged. He couldn't contain himself," said Gilmore's partner Richard Cartiere, referring to one of the deputies, Steve Satterwhite. "We were just stunned. They threw him against the wall, then they started to beat the shit out of him."

The incident, which occurred October 18 at 10:22 pm, according to a police report, apparently began when deputies came to the couple's home to track down a complaint about loud music and a screaming woman.

Deputies entered the property through the backyard, according to both the police report and the couple, and told the men and their five dinner guests that there had been a complaint made about a woman screaming and shouting.

After the homeowners offered to turn down the music, they told the deputies to leave. Gilmore also asked the deputies if there was a noise ordinance in Guerneville. Then things became "tense," according to several accounts of the incident.

Gilmore says he was just stepping into his house to turn off the music when Deputy Satterwhite grabbed without saying anything, pushed him against a wall, and "started handling me (Gilmore) rough."

Deputy Satterwhite's report suggests a different course of events. He said he followed Gilmore "telling him to stop."

"I started to follow Gilmore to prevent him from fleeing or obtaining a weapon but Gilmore turned and tried to shut the door on me," reads the report.

In Satterwhite's defence, Guerneville substation Sgt. Dave Sederholm says deputies are trained to never let anyone leave the room. But several eyewitness accounts of the incident say that another partygoer, Priscilla Sherlock, had already left the scene and the deputies had not tried to stop her.

Satterwhite continued his account of the incident by explaining that when they were both in the house Gilmore "spun around" with a wine glass in his hand, and started to swing the glass at the officer.

At that point, said Satterwhite's report, "I blocked this maneuver by pushing my flashlight and hand into Gilmore's arm... Gilmore said, 'What are you doing? This is my house.' I told Gilmore he was under arrest and attempted to put his hands behind his back."

As the report continues Satterwhite admits that he and another deputy, Wade Eubanks, roughed up Gilmore and pepper sprayed him, saying he was resisting their attempts to handcuff him. the report says the episode lasted nine to 10 minutes.

But Gilmore and his partner Cartiere question why the deputies did not leave their home after the couple offered to turn down the music. "It was already agreed upon that we would shut the music off," said Gilmore.

Gilmore and Cartiere say they believe Satterwhite decided to "teach them a lesson" when he realized that they were a gay couple.

"We have a big gay flag hanging out in front of our house," said Cartiere.

Lisa Keys, the neighbor who phoned police with the noise complaint that initiated the incident, agrees with the two men.

"I called the sheriff's department because I kept hearing a woman scream. It was two or three doors up off Laurel on the left hand side." (Gilmore and Cartiere live on the right hand side as you come up from River Road.) "They (the deputies) deliberately went to their house because they saw the gay flag. Does somebody not know the difference between the right and left hands?"

After the incident, deputies took Gilmore to the Guerneville fire station to remove the pepper spray, then drove him to Sonoma County Jail where he was booked on a misdemeanor charge of "resisting and delaying a peace officer."

At a November 18 hearing Gilmore refused to plea bargain to a lesser charge. He faces a jury trial scheduled for December 3.

According to Sgt. Sederholm, Satterwhite, who was temporarily assigned to Guerneville while awaiting a specialty position, was transferred to the Roseland area soon after the incident.

Originally published in "We the People," a gay/lesbian newspaper serving the Redwood Empire.

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