An outspoken advocate for Vallejo’s unhoused who was arrested during a homeless encampment clean-up this week alleges that law enforcement further targeted him by towing his parked car while he was in custody.
Vallejo police arrested Josè “Joey” Carrizales, a former member of the city’s housing commission, for allegedly obstructing officers near Derr and Lemon Streets Wednesday, law enforcement records show. Solano County Sheriff’s Deputy Dale Matsuoka, a homelessness coordinator for the agency whom the activist berated last month in a highly public verbal clash, then towed Carrizales’ 2005 lime green Toyota Prius, which was parked nearly half a mile away.
Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis said officers arrested Carrizales because he refused to obey police orders to stay in a designated area during the cleanup operation. The 64-year-old Vallejo resident was booked into the Solano County Jail in Fairfield at 2:53 p.m. Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a public officer, according to the county’s jail log.
At the encampment that morning, Carrizales said he photographed city staff involved in the cleanup and asked law enforcement officials for their names and badge numbers. Lt. Jodi Brown, a member of the Vallejo Police Department’s command staff, then told him to “step away from the area,” Carrizales said. She allegedly pushed him with both hands and ordered Ofc. Jaime Escalante to arrest him.
Carrizales said Escalante handcuffed him, shoved his chest into the side of his police SUV, and forced his legs apart while searching him. The officer then pushed him into the back seat, Carrizales said.
Carrizales, who had heart surgery two years ago, said he requested medical attention after the arrest because he was in pain. Police escorted him to Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center where he was handcuffed to a hospital bed and treated with a drug that eases chest pain, Carrizales said.
In an incident last summer, Carrizales suffered a heart attack while in Vallejo police custody, according to a pre-litigation claim filed earlier this year by his attorney Melissa Nold. Carrizales alleges that Vallejo police officers denied him timely medical care. Officers arrested the activist when he stood in front of a tow truck to protest a homeless encampment sweep, according to the claim, but prosecutors declined to file charges.
Neither Brown nor Escalante responded to requests for comment. Hollis said he had not reviewed body camera footage from the encounter. He declined to release the footage to this newsroom.
After Carrizales’ release from jail on Wednesday night, he said a friend drove him to the spot where he had parked his car, only to find it missing.
“I personally feel he targeted me. His actions prove it,” Carrizales said about Matsuoka. “He searched each block looking for my car.”
Matsuoka did not respond to a request for comment. Solano County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Rex Hawkins denied that Carrizales was targeted because of his advocacy efforts.
“I’m confident and comfortable in saying that is not the case,” Hawkins said in an interview Friday.
Hawkins said Matsuoka, who was at Wednesday’s encampment clean-up, towed the car at the direction of Vallejo police following Carrizales’ arrest. He said the car was likely to be vandalized or stolen in the area where it was parked. Matsuoka noted on the report that the car was located in a “high crime area.”
Hollis denied that Vallejo police were involved in the decision to tow Carrizales’ vehicle.
On Thursday morning, Carrizales said the sheriff’s office and towing company released his car — after he paid nearly $700 in combined fees.
In addition to his prior encounters with Vallejo police, Carrizales said he has had other run-ins with Matsuoka at homeless encampments. Last month, Carrizales resigned from Vallejo’s housing commission after the deputy’s body camera captured him yelling at Matsuoka, who had asked him to leave a construction zone, according to the Vallejo Times-Herald.
