%recipient.first%,
My name is Clara Gaitan, and I was so proud of my son Alex when he graduated from the police academy.
But our dream of Alex serving as a police officer has become our family’s nightmare.
Alex is facing 99 years in prison for catching a dangerous criminal!
As a mother, I’m beside myself. You won’t believe how this miscarriage of justice came about.
Back in March 2021, Alex was dispatched for an unknown urgent call for service.
When Alex arrived at the address, he recognized he’d been there before on previous calls. The first time Alex had been there, he had to fight an inhumanly strong young man who was a drug user.
Even with two other officers, it was nearly impossible to subdue the suspect. Only a non-lethal Taser worked, but not before the suspect injured an officer.
However, on this day, THREE other officers had been dispatched to the scene, so they had a better chance of subduing the suspect.
When Alex caught up with his fellow officers, he saw all three officers on the ground, struggling to bring the suspect under control. Alex told him to stop resisting, then grabbed his upper torso and put him on the ground.
Even on the ground with FOUR AGAINST ONE, the suspect had inhuman strength, as if he were on drugs.
Alex knew the suspect’s pain tolerance was so high that fist strikes would not work and could injure Alex. So Alex followed his training and used his police-issued baton to get the suspect to comply and lie fully on the ground.
While on the ground, the suspect continued to resist the officers and their attempts to get him in handcuffs. So Alex decided to use his non-lethal Taser to get the suspect’s compliance.
The Taser deployment worked, and the suspect stopped resisting the police officers.
The danger was over, and Alex would come home that night.
The possibility of your loved one not surviving their shift is a reality that every police family lives with, especially today when criminals are willing to fight officers.
So we thought that was the end of it... but we were wrong.
Almost two years later, the local anti-cop, socialist District Attorney dropped a bombshell and indicted Alex for aggravated assault...
...even though it was the suspect who resisted arrest and decided it was a good idea to fight four police officers.
Alex could be imprisoned for up to 99 years if convicted.
That’s outrageous!
The good news is Alex has the moral support of his department, his Chief of Police, and hundreds of his Brothers and Sisters in Blue across the country.
But, %recipient.first%, as you well know, cops don’t get paid a ton for the sacrifices they make and the dangers they put themselves in to keep us all safe.
As a result of these attacks on my son, we’re facing a mountain of legal bills that could bury us — and send Alex to prison for up to 99 years!
So when Jim Fotis and the National Center for Police Defense (NCPD), a 501(c)3 non-profit charity, offered to help us, it was like God was answering our prayers.
