EL KAHON, California. A man accused of seriously injuring an El Kajon police officer, a woman who was dragging about 200 yards on a road as he clung to an SUV, was ordered to stand trial on Thursday on charges involving a deadly assault. peace officer.
David Pangilinan, 41, and Keaney Flores, 28, are accused of trying to escape from police by dragging police officer Nick Kirello on West Washington Avenue on the morning of December 14.
Deputy Attorney General Clayton Carr said the SUV was traveling at 70km / h when Cirello fell out of the car and sustained injuries that included major head injuries, a cerebral hemorrhage and a broken bone.
The 28-year-old officer was hospitalized for about a week, he testified on Thursday.
The officer initially responded to the scene as the defendants were asleep in an SUV parked on a resident’s highway, according to preliminary hearings.
Pangilinan, who was allegedly behind the wheel, was accused of running away while Kirello was talking to the defendants. Flores is accused of pulling Cirello’s hands out of the SUV window sill to get out of the car.
The SUV, rented by Volkswagen Atlas, was found in another abandoned part of the city. According to the testimony, the couple blew up the SUV near the house of a resident of El Kakhon, told the resident that their car was broken and asked him to call a taxi for them.
Flores was arrested about a week later in Ochhurst, Madeira.
Pangilinan was free for about a month before being arrested in an undisclosed location in the Los Angeles area.
Pangilin’s lawyer, Patrick Klein, insists his client’s behavior did not escalate into an attack because he was simply trying to stay away from Kirello. Klin said Pangilinan did not try to hit or hit the officer with a car, insisting that Flores’s decision to squeeze Kirelo’s fingers out the window was a greater contributing factor to his injuries.
Flores’s lawyer, Vikas Bajay, denied that his client had tried to deport Kirello, saying he was “a passenger who was literally accompanying him for a walk”.
According to the evidence, items used to make fake credit cards were found inside the abandoned SUV. In addition to charges related to C irelo injuries, the couple is accused of committing crimes such as producing fake credit cards and using another person’s identity.
Cirello began his law enforcement career as a police cadet in 2010 and was hired as a police officer in August 2018, according to the El Cajon Police Department.
– City News service