Assault trial of former Sonoma County deputy begins

The lawyer for a former Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy on trial for shooting a man with a stun gun as he lay in his own bed said Monday there are times when emergency circumstances and a person’s conduct causes them to forfeit their right to privacy.

Scott Phillip Thorne, 41, is charged with felony assault by a public officer for firing a Taser at Fernando Del Valle, 38, after being called to his Boyes Hot Springs home on a report of a domestic disturbance.

In opening statements, Thorne’s lawyer, Chris Andrian, said the violent nature of such incidents coupled with suspicious behavior including a 90-second pause before Del Valle’s wife, Kirsten, answered the front door, Del Valle’s unwillingness to come out of his room and a fear he could be laying on top of a gun justified the use of force.

“It’s real simple - you open the door,” Andrian told jurors. “You almost get the sense the guy wanted this.”

Andrian spoke after prosecutor Bob Waner gave his opening punctuated by a nine-minute body camera video made by one of Thorne’s two partners. It showed Thorne kicking in Del Valle’s bedroom door, ordering him to get out of bed and then Tasering him when he refused to move.

“I’m not standing up,” Del Valle said before he was hit with an electric barb. “I’m in my house.”

After screaming and writhing in pain, a shirtless Del Valle is seen on the video scrambling from his bed and bolting to the doorway before he is struck down by baton blows from one of the deputies.

Waner said there was no evidence of domestic violence. Neighbors called 911 after they reported hearing a Kirsten Del Valle yelling at her husband. In the recorded call to dispatchers, neighbor Margaret Sheltren said the wife seemed like a drunken aggressor.

“The deputy showed up that night to the wrong call,” Waner told jurors.

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