A Los Angeles judge on Friday ruled there is enough evidence for two former Long Beach police officers to face trial on charges of filing a false police report involving an arrest over four years ago.

Superior Court Judge Gustavo Sztraicher, who reviewed the evidence including a video leading up to the arrest, said Dedier Reyes, 38, and David Salcedo, 28, would be held to answer for their alleged crimes following a three-hour-long preliminary hearing.

Reyes and Salcedo were charged on Dec. 3 with one count each of filing a false report and falsifying a public record. Reyes is also charged with one count of perjury. They each pleaded not guilty to their charges back in April.

Reyes, a 16-year veteran of the police force, and Salcedo, a five-year department veteran, are accused of lying about the circumstances surrounding the recovery of a handgun after they detained two men, identified in court as Orlando Fonseca and Maximilliano Medina, outside the El Bukanas taqueria in Long Beach on Feb. 15, 2018.

Prosecutors said the officers found a bag with a loaded handgun inside the restaurant and arrested Fonseca and Medina. Detectives testified in court Friday that Fonseca was wrongly held in custody for about five days on suspicion of being a felon with a firearm. He was also arrested on suspicion of being in possession of methamphetamine.

According to the police reports filed by Reyes and Salcedo, the duo spotted Fonseca and Medina outside the El Bukanas restaurant and recognized Fonseca, a documented East Side Longos gang member on parole for a criminal threats conviction.

Reyes and Salcedo reported that Fonseca, not Medina, was the one carrying a dark satchel, which was then placed inside the restaurant once they saw the officer’s squad car going west on Anaheim Street, prosecutors said in court.

Video played in court Friday showed Fonseca and Medina walking into El Bukanas sometime after 6:30 p.m. Medina was the one carrying the dark satchel, according to an LBPD detective who testified.

Medina can be seen in the video taking off the satchel and placing it behind a counter shortly after a police car is seen passing by outside.

Medina then exits the restaurant, and moments later, Reyes enters. Inside, Reyes appears to be interacting with Fonseca, who appears to be ordering food. Reyes points outside and Fonseca exits the taqueria with the officer following behind.

Reyes returns to the restaurant about five minutes later and heads directly behind the counter where Medina had placed the satchel prior to their arrival. Reyes takes the satchel and speaks with employees before exiting the restaurant once again. The satchel was where Reyes allegedly found the weapon.

There’s no evidence that Fonseca ever interacted with the weapon, but upon seeing the probable cause reports written by the officers, detective Peter Lackovich said there seemed to be a small portion in the officers’ report where, at the time, Fonseca’s arrest was justified.

At the preliminary hearing, detective Oscar Valenzuela testified he discovered the discrepancies in the police reports written by Reyes and Salcedo after collecting surveillance video from the restaurant six days after the arrest.

Valenzuela, who was working with the LBPD’s homicide unit in 2018, became involved in the case following Medina’s arrest. Valenzuela said Medina was a person of interest in a homicide that occurred a month before the interactions at the taqueria. The gun found in his satchel, a .30 caliber Glock, was the same type of caliber used in the murder, Valenzuela said.

Reyes’ attorney, Benjamin Karabian, and Salcedo’s attorney, John Barnett, both claimed their clients were not responsible for the charges against them, and that they had simply made a mistake.

Karabian said Reyes was faced with a high-pressured situation the night when he saw Medina and Fonseca, two documented gang members, outside the taqueria, which detectives testified is located in a prominent gang area of Long Beach.

He also said Reyes never had the opportunity to review the security footage from the restaurant before writing the report.

“A mistake was made and he owns it,” Karabian told Sztraicher. “We are not supposed to be in this room for mistakes.”

Barnett, meanwhile, argued that Salcedo, a “rookie cop,” being trained by Reyes, only had one inaccuracy in his report from that night, which was that he observed Fonseca with the satchel. Barnett also said that Salcedo had no motive to choose whether the weapon or drugs would be Fonseca’s or Medina’s because they were both already detained.

“He could’ve simply misidentified who had the satchel because they were both standing next to each other,” Barnett said.

Deputy District Attorney Kristopher Gay countered, stating how it was a coincidence that both officers made the same mistake, especially after evidence shows that Salcedo wrote his report after viewing Reyes’.

Gay also argues that it would have been impossible for Reyes or Salcedo to observe Fonseca or Medina walking into the taqueria because the officers were down the street making a U-turn as Medina went back inside the restaurant to hide the satchel, while Fonseca remained outside.

Gay believes Reyes thought that was Fonseca’s gun because that’s what Medina told him the night of their arrest. However, he formed a statement based on observations he could not have made.

“What they saw was [Fonseca and Medina] there and they decide to turn around because he recognizes them and knows they’re on parole,” Gay said. “This is not a confusion of people, it’s made up facts that never happened.”

The criminal charges filed against Reyes and Salcedo have also led to fallout in other cases. In July, a man who was serving a 39-year sentence for assaulting a Long Beach police officer had his conviction vacated due in part to Reyes’ criminal charges.

Reyes and Salcedo are no longer employed with the Long Beach Police Department, spokesperson LBPD Richard Mejia said.

Editor’s Note: A statement wrongly attributed to Benjamin Karabian was removed from the article. 

Man serving 39-year sentence to be freed after officer who testified against him is charged with lying