Deputy Recounts Fatal Struggle With Youth

VENTURA — Sheriff’s deputies outside a rowdy Meiners Oaks party encountered a badly injured but combative Nick Dowey, who fought with authorities as they struggled to get him help, Deputy Darin Yanover testified in federal court Monday.

Yanover is one of eight deputies named as defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by Dowey’s parents regarding their son’s death. The Doweys’ charge that Yanover and another deputy used excessive force during a struggle with their son, and that at least one officer struck him over the head with a flashlight.

Six other deputies, they say, did nothing to help the young man receive badly needed medical attention.

Dowey died of extensive head trauma one day after the Sept. 12, 1997, incident.

Attorneys for the deputies argue that the man’s fatal wounds came from a fight earlier in the evening, when he was struck in the head with a baseball bat.

Yanover, called to testify by the Doweys’ attorney, Richard Hamlish, said the 21-year-old Ventura college student appeared “out of control,” thrashing back and forth as a friend tried to restrain him. Blood covered his head and clothing.

“He wasn’t saying anything, he was just grunting,” Yanover recalled. “He didn’t appear to understand anything anyone was telling him. I just told him to calm down, help was on the way.”

Dowey tried to run from deputies, but they followed and grabbed his arms. Yanover said Dowey, a former high school wrestler, was strong enough to drag the deputies clutching his body several feet into a nearby street.

Hamlish repeatedly asked Yanover why they tried to restrain Dowey, who was obviously hurt and disoriented.

“Mr. Dowey appeared out of control and unable to care for his own safety,” Yanover said. “He needed medical attention.”

As Yanover and Deputy Donald Rodarte tried to restrain Dowey, they began wrestling in the street. “He just overpowered us,” Yanover said.