Breaking: Charges against Air Force Capt. Nicolas Aquino will be dropped.

The charge against an Air Force captain and former Naval Postgraduate School student who was tackled and charged with resisting arrest—after he questioned a sheriff's deputy's right to detain him, on his own porch, will be dismissed.

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo announced in a press release that the single charge of obstructing a peace officer lodged against Air Force Capt. Nicolas Aquino would be withdrawn. 

Flippo denied racial profiling had played a part in Aquino's detainment, which happened at Aquino's Carmel Woods home last December.

A report from the Monterey County Sheriff's Office says a neighbor called to report seeing a suspicious man walking around and into the Carmel Woods residence where Aquino lived. The man, the report said, was described as Hispanic and wearing a hoodie.

Six weeks after he was tackled, placed into the back of a sheriff's patrol car and then released after deputies confirmed he lived at the home, Aquino found out he was being criminally charged in the case.

"There was no evidence to substantiate that baseless claim" of racial profiling, the release states. "The deputy did not select Capt. Aquino as a suspect to investigate. That came about because of an honest concern by a neighborhood resident that another burglary was about to occur."

And that's a claim Aquino's attorney, Steve Liner, finds ludicrous.

"This was a call of a suspicious person, not a burglary in progress," Liner says. "Our position is this is about an underlying racist society in which people of color are viewed as 'other' and given much less respect and latitude."

Still, Liner says, Aquino is relieved the criminal case has ended.

"He is very happy to get the result of a dismissal on a case that never should have been filed in the first place," Liner says. 

Aquino, a first-generation American whose parents were forced to flee political persecution in Paraguay, was in the Carmel home he shared with his wife when he noticed someone creeping around his front yard last Dec. 13.

He peered out the window and saw a guy wearing a uniform; Aquino says he stepped outside, closed the door behind him and asked, “Excuse me, can I help you?”

Monterey Sheriff’s Deputy Ivan Rodriguez responded he was investigating a report of suspicious activity in the area—specifically, as Rodriguez’s written report would later describe, “an adult Hispanic male wearing a hoodie” walking around and into a Carmel Woods’ residence.

One of the neighbors told Rodriguez “he was suspicious of the male at 24591 Portola Ave. and that ‘I should keep my eye on him.’”

Aquino had lived in the home for about 10 months at that point. He was walking around outside looking for a UPS package that had been delivered.

Rodriguez, according to his written report, asked for Aquino’s ID. Aquino asked him if he was being detained.

Aquino says he reached slowly into his pocket, got his wallet, took out his military ID card and held it up for the deputy to see.

Rodriguez says Aquino refused to hand that ID over, while Aquino says the deputy told him a military ID didn’t prove he lived there. Aquino said he was going inside to retrieve some bills that could prove it, and says that’s when Rodriguez tackled him.

“He doesn’t say anything. He grabs my wrist, puts me in a front guillotine, spins me around and I land on all fours,” Aquino tells me. A construction worker from a project across the street ran over and helped pile on.

A second deputy arrived and Aquino was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car.

“I told them, ‘I don’t consent to a search,’” Aquino says. “They went to my door and it appears they went into my house.”

About 20 minutes later, Aquino was released. The deputies let him get his bills and prove he lived there.

Aquino claims the deputy took him aside and told him he could have avoided the confrontation by knowing his neighbors. And then, according to Aquino, the deputy said, “You started this by not giving me your ID.”

Aquino had moved from the Carmel Woods home—he and his wife were too upset to continue living there—and the paperwork telling him he was being charged never reached him, although he continued checking his mail because his lease wasn’t up.

Aquino found out about the charge when the highest ranking Air Force officer at NPS called and told him, “Don’t come to NPS or any other base, there’s a warrant out for your arrest.”

Aquino has also hired litigator Nina Patane. Sometime in the next few weeks, Patane will file a claim against the sheriff’s office as a precursor to a possible lawsuit.

Flippo stated the decision to drop the case was based on a number of considerations. Liner, the release states, had requested a review of the case and provided additional information to supplement the facts contained in the deputy sheriff’s report. The review, conducted by prosecutors, concluded the deputy sheriff had lawfully detained Aquino as a burglary suspect. The information available to the deputy was that there had been two recent burglaries of residences on that street; one of the victims had summoned the deputy because a person the victim did not know appeared to be prowling around another residence across the street. 

"The deputy would have been remiss in his duties had he allowed Capt. Aquino to re-enter the residence prior to demonstrating to the deputy he was the lawful resident," the release states.

Aquino, a specialist in cyber warfare, had completed his studies at NPS and was waiting transfer to his next duty station when the case began. It was not immediately clear when his transfer would occur following word the case had been dropped. Patane, Aquino's civil attorney, could not be reached for immediate comment.