In June, following the death of George Floyd and amid renewed scrutiny over how and when law enforcement officers use physical force against civilians, the Independent filed a California Public Records Act request with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office for information on serious use-of-force incidents dating back to 2010. The Sheriff’s Office is releasing the records on a rolling basis, and these reports will be published as the information is made available.
It’s a little before 10 p.m. on October 6, 2013, and Jeremy Bordegaray finds himself in a familiar situation ― handcuffed in the back of a police car. Bordegaray, a repeat drug offender recently out on parole, had just been arrested for breaking into a beach house in a gated Carpinteria community. Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office deputies also found a loaded handgun in his backpack and methamphetamine in his truck.
Somehow, as deputies are searching the house for evidence, Bordegaray manages to slip the cuffs under his legs, break through the cruiser’s plexiglass partition, and squirm into the driver’s seat. The car’s dash-cam captures the moment a tow-truck driver hired to haul away Bordegaray’s truck realizes what’s happening and frantically tries to alert the deputies. Bordegaray throws the car in reverse and guns it out of the driveway as the deputies rush outside to give chase.