Merced police investigation into downtown fight involving deputies in DA’s hands

Merced police reports on the bar fight that involved Merced County Sheriff’s deputies have been forwarded to prosecutors, according to Merced’s police chief.

Police and prosecutors have been hesitant to name which deputies are being investigated or even how many were potentially involved in a fight outside Cue Spot Billiards in downtown Merced on Dec. 15.

The Merced County District Attorney’s Office has not come to a decision on who might face charges related to the fight, according to District Attorney Kimberly Lewis. She declined to comment further, saying the investigation is ongoing.

Police Chief Chris Goodwin would not confirm the identity of any deputies on Thursday, but the fight possibly included Sgt. Kevin Blake, who is also a member of the Merced City Council.

Though he would not specifically confirm deputies were involved, he said police have spoken to deputies that were there. No one has been arrested related to the scuffle.

“All we did was collect everything we had, all the facts that we were able to get and gave (the DA) the packet to see what she and her staff wanted to do with it,” Goodwin said.

Someone called police about 11:45 p.m. on the night of the incident to report a fight, or what police call a “peace disturbance,” Goodwin said. The pool hall turned over surveillance footage to police, but the footage is from inside while the incident was outside. So it didn’t provide much information, he said.

Police were able to see at least two people were filming the action with their phones, Goodwin said, but have not been able to identify those people and no one has come forward with the footage.

“We know there were several people watching this, don’t know who any of them are and can’t see really exactly what has occurred,” he said.

The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an independent administrative review of the incident at the request of the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, Fresno sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti has said.

Blake has been on the City Council for five years and in November won a second term of four years. He’s been with the sheriff’s office for about 17 years.

Merced Police are asking anyone with any information regarding this incident to contact Sgt. Rey Alvarez at 209-388-7705. The public can send information via anonymous text messages to police department by dialing “TIP411” (847411) and including the word “Comvip” as the “keyword” in the text message.

This story was originally published January 21, 2019 at 6:00 AM.