MADERA - After a year and a half the Madera County District Attorney's Office has dropped all charges against a Madera man accused of brandishing a firearm at an off-duty CHP officer who was following him in a road-rage incident through the city of Madera.

Supervising assistant district attorney Karen Mitchell said in the Madera County Superior Court last week that the DAs office would not be pursuing charges against David Romero (53). Madera County District Attorney David Linn told Big Valley News, "I did not feel it was in the best interest of justice to continue the case."

A few days before Christmas in 2013, with his wife in the passenger seat, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer said he saw what he believed may be a drunk driver and followed the individual in a private unmarked vehicle for several miles through the city of Madera. According to Madera Police Commander Dino Lawson, "Mr. Romero became very concerned with the officers actions. In an attempt to stop the officer from following him the suspect brandished a handgun at him."

The off-duty officer, James Yates (35) and his wife Jennie Ortega Rinder Yates (32), were following Mr. Romero's Dodge truck in their Toyota 4Runner when the two vehicles approached the intersection of University Avenue and Orchard Avenue near Romero's home. According to Romero's attorney Steven Geringer, his client fearing for his safety made a quick U-turn to get away from Yates when the off-duty officer blocked Romero's progress blocking the north bound lane with his vehicle. At that point Romero pulled his handgun. In response Yates jumped out of his truck firing five shots from an unregistered .38 caliber Colt through the windshield into Romero's headrest.

Within seconds, three California Highway Patrol vehicles arrived at the scene.  One officer broke out the window of Romero's truck with his nightstick, while two other officers removed the citizen from his vehicle. During this altercations David Romero, a janitor at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, received bruises to both sides of his face and had a sever laceration to his left pinkie finger.

Despite only being ten yards from his target, Yates completely missed Romero with all the bullets he discharged. It is believed that the injury Romero suffered to his finger may have been from the broken glass or a graze from the last round Yates fired.

According to Madera Police reports, Kevin Dunivan of Santa Cruz was outside his mothers home on Orchard Avenue smoking a cigarette when the incident took place just yards in front of him. He told police that Officer Yates never identified himself as a police officer before firing at Romero and all he heard was a woman screaming from the off-duty officer's vehicle.

Witnesses said when the three CHP officers arrived at the scene they parked in a diamond shape behind Yates' vehicle with sirens and lights activated. But according to Geringer, the CHP vehicle in the front of the other two did not have its on vehicle video recorder activated. The two vehicles behind the lead CHP vehicle did have their recorders activated but the lead vehicle blocked the scene for the other cameras.

Despite the fact that this incident took place within the city of Madera, Madera Police was not included on the 911 call. CHP were first on scene and only after the shooting were the Madera Police notified by CHP that the incident was going down. Lawson said, "The suspect was already out of the vehicle and handcuffed when Madera PD arrived on scene."

According to Madera Police reports, Officer Lori Alva of the Madera Police Department noticed a .38 caliber handgun in the waist of Officer Yates and took possession of that weapon. Geringer said that weapon did not come back as registered to Officer Yates and the identity of the registered owner has not been revealed as yet.

David Romero was found to be in possession of a .40 caliber handgun which was registered to the Madera Unified employee and he was also in possession of a valid California Concealed Weapons Permit that was issued to him authorizing him to carry a loaded firearm.

During the investigation Yates claimed Romero was driving under the influence, however when Romero was booked into the Madera County Department of Correction for brandishing of a firearm he was not charged with drunk driving and had a blood alcohol level of only .002. He was released seven days later on $25,000 Bail.

During the year and a half leading up to the case going to court, the Madera County District Attorney's Office has been requesting the California Highway Patrol to turn over the full MAIT (Major Accident Investigation Team) report which according to Geringer, the CHP refused to do.

Geringer told BVN that the CHP only release just three pages of the report and that he had filed a motion to compel the CHP to release the full report. Instead of the CHP complying and turning over discovery evidence, the district attorney's office dropped the charges against his client. However Gerenger said, "The motion to compel was to prepare for trial and the matter was going to be dismissed with or without my filing the motion."

This case is now heading to Federal court with a civil lawsuit filed against Yates, as well as the three officers that removed Romero from his truck, Efrain Jimenez, Javier Ruvalcaba, Chris Lancaster and the California Highway Patrol. The civil trial was stayed until the conclusion of the criminal hearings will be defended by the California Attorney General's office.

Madera CHP Unit commander Lt. Mike Bowles agreed to an interview prior to the dismissal of charges, but has refused to return our calls since. The Madera County District Attorney's office will not be bringing charges against Yates nor the three other CHP officers for this incident.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Photos from MaderaMugshots.com & Facebook.com
---------------------------------------------------------------

EDITORIAL COMMENT ON - What was in that MAIT report that CHP did not want to come out in court and who was the registered owner of Yate's firearm? I guess we will have to wait for the civil trial. -  EDITORIAL COMMENT OFF