Riverside Sheriff investigating incident that led to arrest depicted in viral video (original) (raw)

The Riverside County Sheriff's Office is investigating the circumstances that led to the arrest of a French Valley woman in the early hours of July 4.

The arrest is the subject of a video containing profanity circulating online showing a deputy refusing to leave the woman's residence despite her requests. According to the video, a minor answered the door after the deputy rang the bell. Captions in the video say the minor closed the door after seeing the deputy, only for the deputy to open the door and let himself in.

The video then shows the deputy arguing with a woman, identified by the Sheriff's Office as Adele Shirey, 44, who tells the deputy if he does not have a warrant, she will speak to him outside.

The deputy, who stands just inside the door's threshold, tells Shirey he will not leave the house. He asserts his right to be inside by pointing off-screen and saying, "They opened the door and ran from me."

"Now that I'm inside your house, I own your house right now," the deputy says in the video.

After Shirey points at the deputy, he grabs her and pulls her onto the front porch before putting her in handcuffs. The Sheriff's Department says she was ultimately booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center for resisting arrest and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

It appears from the video that Shirey did not touch the deputy throughout the confrontation, and that the deputy initiated contact. The Sheriff's Office declined to answer questions about the deputy's conduct, as depicted in the video.

Shirey's arraignment was scheduled for Friday, but as of Saturday afternoon, no update on her pleas had been posted on the Riverside County Superior Court website.

Since being posted on Wednesday, the video has generated around 10,000 views on YouTube. Many commenters questioned the deputy's conduct, with some calling for the deputy's firing and others advocating for criminal charges to be brought against him.

The incident occurred at 2:41 a.m. following a neighbor's noise complaint, according to the Sheriff's Office.

"This incident occurred over a month before being posted to social media and only days before the arraignment of the individual arrested for delaying/obstructing an investigation and contributing to the delinquency of minors," the Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

All body-worn camera footage has been obtained, and the Sheriff's Office says it will conduct a thorough investigation to determine if discipline is warranted.

Sam Morgen covers the city of Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. Reach him at smorgen@gannett.com.