On Tuesday, February 23, 2021, a grand jury refused to bring criminal charges against the Rochester, New York, police officers who killed Daniel Prude. Last March, Mr. Prude was in a psychiatric crisis, naked in the street outside his brother’s home. He had been visiting his brother from out of town,…
When George Floyd was being restrained by Minneapolis police, officer Thomas Lane said on video: “Roll him on his side?” “I just worry about the excited delirium or whatever.” Mr. Floyd died several minutes later of restraint asphyxia as a result of being improperly restrained face down with an officer’s…
Napa Valley Register/Howard Yune A law firm representing the family of Juan Adrian Garcia announced Tuesday morning it has filed a claim against Napa County for what it called “completely unjustified” use of force in the deadly shooting of Garcia by a sheriff’s deputy in October. The claim, a prelude…
Carl Edwards was on his own front porch, working on a fence, minding his own business, when Vallejo Police Officer Spencer Muniz-Bottomley attacked him. Two other officers and a sergeant joined in, choking and beating Carl for several minutes. Officers were looking for someone else who did not fit Carl’s…
San Francisco Chronicle/Otis R. Taylor, Jr. Handyman Carl Edwards was welding the fence at the side of his Tennessee Street building when a Vallejo police officer approached him. Seconds later, Edwards was bleeding — tackled to the ground, choked and punched repeatedly in the head. Blood gushed from his busted…
On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Rachel Swan informed me that back in March of this year, the San Francisco District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, had quietly dismissed the criminal cases against the Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies who brutalized our client, Stanislav Petrov, in November 2015, on video.…
We helped our two clients, the children of Humberto (“Beto”) Martinez, settle their claims for their father’s wrongful chokehold death for $7.3 million plus police reforms. This local case involved Pittsburg police officers’ use of a carotid hold and choke hold, and other highly injurious force, on video, while Beto…
This local case involved Pittsburg police officers’ use of a carotid hold and choke hold, and other highly injurious force, on video, while Beto Martinez can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe!” much like the more publicized cases of George Floyd and Eric Garner. On the afternoon of July 26,…
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…
The City of Vallejo agreed to pay $5.7 million to avoid trial against the children and parents of Ronell Foster, who was shot and killed by Vallejo Officer Ryan McMahon in 2018. Officer McMahon was stopping Ronell for a bicycle infraction, and says he only intended to give him a…