P.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

In late November, 2011, Aridai Mendez‟s 16-year-old sister Lilibeth and her sister‟s friend Joselyn had reported that Leonard Alcala, a neighbor who lived with his family in a house behind the Mendez family home in El Monte, had tried to rob them at gunpoint.1 Lilibeth and her parents had reported the incident to the police, and Alcala had been arrested. Alcala was held to answer on four felony charges, including one count of attempted second degree robbery, attempting to take personal property from Lilibeth by force or fear. On November 29, 2011, Davis approached Detective Batres of the El Monte Police Department at the El Monte courthouse, telling him that the incident with Alcala had not happened as the victims had reported it. Batres told Davis not to contact the Mendez family. On December 6, 2011, Batres received a phone message from Davis saying that she was a family friend with information about the Alcala case, and that unless he

Because Aridai and Lilibeth Mendez share the same last name, we refer to them by their first names.

2 returned her call she intended to contact his watch commander, or an attorney, in order to “get the truth on the…