San Jose Mercury News/Nate Gartell PITTSBURG — The city has agreed to pay $7.3 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of a man who was killed after an officer placed him in a carotid hold for 50 seconds, using a controversial technique that has since been widely banned…
Los Angeles Times/Richard Winton The family of a San Quentin inmate who contracted the coronavirus has filed the first death claim against the California correctional system related to the pandemic, citing the botched transfer of infected prisoners as the cause of his death. Daniel Ruiz, 61, is one of 27…
KTVU – FOX2 /Lisa Fernandez SAN QUENTIN, Calif. – Civil rights attorneys announced on Thursday what they believe is the first claim against the California prison system stemming from the botched transfer and the resulting coronavirus-related death of a Sacramento man held at San Quentin. The claim was brought by the children and mother of Daniel…
San Francisco Chronicle/Otis R. Taylor, Jr. Last week, the city of Vallejo agreed to pay $5.7 million to the family of Ronell Foster. According to the city attorney’s office, the settlement is the largest for a civil rights violation in the city’s history, but Paula McGowan, Foster’s mother, isn’t in the…
San Francisco Chronicle/Bob Egelko A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed the family of a Pittsburg man to sue the city and its police over a fatal struggle in which an officer choked the man and two officers knelt on his back until he lost consciousness. … [In July, 2016, officers…
Fresno Bee/Robert Rodriguez The family of Gerald Johnson, a 55-year-old Fresno man shot and killed by police in March, has filed a wrongful death claim against the City of Fresno. The claim, filed on Monday, alleges police used excessive force when trying to convince Johnson to get out of a broken-down…
KQED News/Sukey Lewis A federal appeals court in San Francisco is considering whether six Pittsburg police officers can be held liable for killing a man during a violent arrest in 2016. At the center of the officers’ appeal is a legal doctrine called qualified immunity that broadly shields public officials…
Cara Bayles/Law 360 Wednesday, the Minnesota attorney general charged four former Minneapolis police officers for their roles in the murder of George Floyd, the black man whose death has sparked days of worldwide protests. Derek Chauvin, the officer filmed pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck while he begged for his life,…
“That’s the kind of aggressive-ass policing I’m talking about!” That’s what one Vacaville officer said on camera, when he didn’t realize his camera was on, after his sergeant had shot and killed a mentally ill man whose car they had just chased and forced to crash. We handled that case…
In another outrageous incident, Sonoma County Deputies killed the victim of the crime they were “solving.” Deputy Charles Blount has been fired for his overly aggressive conduct, including a choke hold, that killed David Glen Ward, who was actually the victim of a previously reported carjacking. Stunning video, finally released,…