An Arcadia man pleaded not guilty Monday to four felony counts stemming from a struggle in Temple City with a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who suffered a serious head injury when both men fell down some stairs.
William Gerald Pell, 58, is facing one count each of resisting a peace officer with death or serious bodily injury, resisting an executive officer, battery with serious bodily injury and battery with injury on a peace officer.
The criminal complaint alleges that he inflicted great bodily injury on the deputy and that he has a 2015 conviction for attempted forcible rape, according to Ricardo Santiago of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Pell, who is being held on $140,000 bail, was ordered to return to court on Feb. 26, when a date is expected to be set for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
The deputy was injured shortly before 6 p.m. last Tuesday in the 5600 block of Rosemead Boulevard after he “responded to a call of a possible drunk male on the second floor of the location,” said Deputy Trina Schrader of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. “When he arrived and attempted to detain the suspect, they got into an altercation which caused them both to fall down the stairs.”
The deputy, a six-year department veteran assigned to the sheriff’s Temple Station, sustained a head injury and was treated in County/USC Medical Center’s intensive care unit, according to Temple Station Sgt. Jose Carbajal, who said the injury “was more severe than we thought.”
The deputy has been released and is now recuperating at home, according to a watch commander.
Pell was taken into custody by other sheriff’s deputies who responded to the location. Authorities said he was treated for minor injuries at a hospital.