Video shows Vallejo police violently arrest woman during husband’s traffic stop

VALLEJO – A woman who came out of her house to confront Vallejo police officers who pulled over her husband late last month was taken to the ground and arrested after she had backed away from the car, according to video of the encounter obtained by the Vallejo Sun.

Police alleged that Calvin Rush tried to evade an officer that attempted to pull him over for speeding because he continued driving the last few blocks to his home. His wife, Jayme Rush, was arrested for allegedly obstructing officers who had pulled her husband over.

The couple is also suing the Fairfield Police Department after they were both violently arrested during a traffic stop in that city in 2019. In that incident, an officer allegedly threw Calvin Rush to the ground after pulling him over for driving with expired tags. The lawsuit alleges that when his wife attempted to film the arrest, Officer Dustin Joseph — a former Vallejo police officer implicated in the city’s badge bending scandal — threw her to the ground as well.

The Rushes’ arrest in Vallejo happened around 3:20 p.m. on June 30. Calvin Rush said that he was returning home from work at a convenience store and passed Vallejo police headquarters on Amador Street. Officer Ted Garcia pulled up behind him and followed him for nearly a mile, according to Calvin Rush.

Garcia attempted to pull Rush over a few blocks from his home. After Rush stopped, Garcia claimed that he had pulled him over because he was driving 55 mph in a residential area, but Rush disputes that he was driving that fast.

“I feel like I was profiled because I have an Escalade and I'm Black,” Calvin Rush said in an interview. “Now that I'm in a nice car, I get profiled all the time.”

Rush said he continued driving the last few blocks from his home because he was afraid after his previous encounters with the police. “I was scared, and if anything was going to happen, I wanted to be in the presence of my family,” he said.

But Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis said that when Rush continued driving Vallejo police considered it a pursuit and Garcia called for backup. Six Vallejo police officers arrived at Rush’s home, which Hollis said was all of the officers on duty at that time.

As Rush stopped in front of his home in the 700 block of Grant Street, his wife Jayme Rush came outside. She approached the passenger side window, confronting Garcia, but also imploring her husband to follow the officer’s commands.

“We’ve been beat up by you before,” Calvin Rush said to Garcia, who was standing outside the Escalade’s driver’s window. Rush asked Garcia if his body camera was on and he said it was.

Other officers told Jayme Rush to back up and she moved back onto her lawn, saying police have beat her up in the past.

“Nobody’s going to beat you,” a female officer told Jayme Rush.

Visibly shaking, Jayme Rush said she wasn’t going to sit down as officers told her to do, as she was standing off the sidewalk in her front lawn.

“Just stay there,” the female officer said.

Jayme Rush didn’t move, but said, “You’re fucking with me again.”

Without further provocation, a large male officer stepped onto the Rushes’ property, lunged at Jayme Rush and threw her to the ground.

In the video, Jayme Rush screams in pain as the officers pin her to the ground and pull her hands behind her back to handcuff her.

As officers pulled her to her feet — which the female officer attempted to do initially by pulling solely on the handcuffs behind Jayme Rush’s back — she screamed that her arm and neck were injured.

“You just have to listen, ma’am. We don’t want to do this to you,” a second female officer said as Jayme Rush screamed in pain.

Vallejo police also arrested Calvin Rush, during which he said  Officer Zach Horton pointed a Taser at him while he was handcuffed.

Calvin Rush was on probation at the time of his arrest, but his probation officer did not require him to stay in jail and he was released on bail. He said that his wife — who suffers from back injuries — went to a hospital and was left with marks and bruises and a gash on her knee.

The Solano County District Attorney’s Office said last week that the office had not yet received the Vallejo police report on the incident and has not made a decision whether to charge the Rushes.

For Calvin Rush, he wondered why he was followed home and six officers responded. He said that previously, he hit the panic button at his job at the convenience store during armed robberies and no officer responded. He said that in those incidents the assailant pointed a gun at him and escaped. Vallejo police called the next day and apologized, he said.

The Rushes arrest came days after the first shooting by a Vallejo police officer in three years, since Sean Monterrosa was shot and killed in 2020. Vallejo police are expected to release body camera video of the incident on Tuesday and hold a town hall event to discuss the shooting at Elmer Cave Language Academy at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.