California Criminal Lawyer Blog

Woman Defends Posing with On-Duty Deputies
Contributor: Antonio Castelan
Reported by: Jeff Powers
Last Update: 9/05/2008 12:10 pm

A 21-year old Ramona woman is telling her story about posing with San Diego County Sheriff Deputies. The pictures show woman getting handcuffed, and put in the back seat of a squad car. This all happened while the officers were on-duty at Molly Malone's Tavern.

Jenny Dawson remembers a fun December night at the Ramona bar. She and her cousin approached the sheriffs deputies there.

"They wished me a happy birthday," Dawson tells San Diego 6. "I didn't get harrassed at all. I simply asked them if they could put me in the back of the cop car."

Dawson's cousin, Bobbie Dawson, snapped the photos.

Bobbie Dawson remembers thinking, "Oh yay! Let's take a cute little picture of my cousin with the cops."

Jenny sat in the back of the squad car.

She says, "I thought it would be fun and stuff to say to my friends the next day. 'Yeah, I got put in the cop car on my 21st birthday' just for laughs."

The sheriff's department is doing an internal investigation. They are not saying if the deputies under investigation are still on patrol. There are 6 pictures. All were taken at Molly Malone's bar in Ramona over the past 5 months to a year. And they were taken by Ramona resident Allen Baker. Two deputies are seen in the photos, Jesse Allensworth and Colby Hodge.

The man who took them Allen Baker says, "They were slapping girls in the butt, handcuffing them, putting them in their police cars for fun for their birthday. They were taking photographs of them in their police cars while the were 'fakely' arrested. While they're supposed to be on taxpayer dollars."

Baker says deputies are at this bar while on duty several nights a week for hours at a time. We spoke with the manager of Molly Malone's who confirmed Baker's story. Though he declined an on camera interview, the manager told us several deputies frequent the bar while on duty.

In court at a preliminary hearing Deputy Hodge faced Baker. The two got into a fight outside Molly Malone's several months ago. The DA wanted Baker to face felony charges for the incident, but a judge reduced them to a single misdemeanor.
Baker's public defender says the beating and photos are the tip of the iceberg. She says there is a culture of corruption at the Sheriff's Ramona substation.

Sheriff's Spokesperson Jan Caldwell said, "We need to conduct a thorough and methodical inquiry." Caldwell says the Sheriff's department has already begun an internal investigation. "We take these things very seriously. We will investigate and we will vet it all the way to its logical conclusion."