Attorney: San Leandro to pay $3.9M to settle civil rights lawsuit from man brutally beaten by police in 2019
A mentally disabled man who San Leandro police officers beat with batons and Tased in 2019 will receive $3.9 million from the city to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit, his attorney announced Monday.
No criminal charges were ever filed against 37-year-old Sorrell Shiflett after his encounter with police officers while he was walking on a sidewalk. Shiflett has major cognitive difficulties from a serious brain injury suffered in 2008 when he was the victim of an armed robbery.
On Oct. 6, 2019, Shiflett was dressed as the popular anime character Naruto while walking in his neighborhood before sunrise with his cousin. Officer Ismael Navarro, responding to a suspicious persons call, arrived and began questioning the men; fellow Officer Anthony Pantoja soon joined him.
According to his attorney, Shiflett consented to be searched, but grew frightened and took off running when he was ordered to put his hands behind his back. He ran because he wanted to get help from his father to explain his disability and the trouble he was having in understanding why police wanted to detain him, attorney Adanté Pointer said.
While Navarro and Pantoja gave chase, Shiflett stopped, turned around and walked back to the officers to surrender, Pointer said. He was instead beaten with police batons and Tased, despite neither officer claiming Shiflett tried to strike them. It was unclear the amount of force used and the number of times he was Tased since Navarro failed to save his bodycam footage and Pantoja did not activate his camera until after the use of force.
The officers eventually took Shiflett to a hospital, but the beating left him with two brain hemorrhages and a separated shoulder that required multiple surgeries.
"They then callously dumped him at a nearby hospital," Pointer said. "Despite knowing how seriously he was injured the Police Department inexplicably allowed the most critical items of evidence, including two of the responding officers' bodycam videos and a Taser log, to be destroyed in an effort to cover up the officers' misdeeds. They also failed to conduct a subsequent internal affairs investigation as required by their own policy."
The lawsuit accused the officers of excessive force, unlawful seizure, and violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Shiflett was released from custody after police learned how badly he was injured, according to Pointer. All charges against him were dropped within a few weeks.
The City of San Leandro was contacted for a reaction to the settlement announcement and had not provided one as of 3 p.m.
