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…
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,…
Buffalo, New York, police recently shoved Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old man who was protesting the murder of George Floyd, knocking Mr. Gugino to the ground and causing a head injury that immediately began to bleed and required hospitalization. Then a gang of officers callously walked past Mr. Gugino as he…
“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…
Washington Post: “Trump Lambastes His Critics as He Considers How Else to Target His Perceived Enemies Over Impeachment” → This week, Donald Trump has said he will start on a retaliation campaign against people who testified under oath in the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearing. His early targets include United…
In a still pending case, a California county and some of its medical providers have agreed to pay $5.1 million to the widow and son of a mentally ill man who died in jail while awaiting transfer to a state hospital. The man who died had cared for his family…