Brett Kelman, The Desert
Palm Springs council is
weighing a proposed settlement with a resident who was accidentally shot by
police last year. (Photo: Desert Sun file photo)
The Palm Springs City Council
will vote Wednesday on a proposed settlement with a resident who was
accidentally shot by police last year.
On the evening of Jan. 9, 2013,
Benjamin Meza, 49, was walking his dog across South Camino Real. Down the
street, three Palm Springs police officers were firing at a fleeing burglary
suspect. Most of their bullets didn't hit anyone, but one of them continued
along the darkened neighborhood street, and struck Meza in the leg.
Meza filed a lawsuit in county
court one year later. Two months after that, the lawsuit was moved to federal
court.
The terms of the proposed
settlement are unknown. The proposal was submitted to a federal judge two weeks
ago and the City Council is expected to vote on the proposal during closed
session. City attorneys will "recommend" the settlement, according to
court documents.
The police officers who fired
their guns were Chad Nordman, Troy Castillo and Nick Barth. They were
identified by the police department in June after The Desert Sun filed a public
records request. It is unclear which officer fired the bullet that hit Meza.
The shots were fired during the
attempted apprehension of Juan Villanueva Lopez Jr., a suspect in a series of
burglaries.
The officers had staked out
Lopez's car, which was parked outside of an apartment building. When Lopez and
another man exited the building and climbed in the vehicle, the officers
circled with their guns drawn, demanding the two men surrender.
One man climbed out of the car,
but Lopez refused. The officer zapped him with a stun gun, but he clung to the
wheel and punched the gas. The car lurched backwards, knocking three officers
to the ground, then sped forward, the driver's side door hanging open, the
headlights off.
The officers opened fire as the
car sped away. Lopez was caught hours later after a standoff in Cathedral City.
Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers with a
deadly weapon.
The Palm Springs Police
Department — like most police departments — has a policy that discourages
shooting at a moving vehicle, which the policy states is "rarely effective."
Officers are only supposed to fire at a vehicle if it is heading toward them
and there is no way to get out of the way, or if there is another threat of
deadly force, like a gun pointed out the window, directed at the officers or
others.
Despite this policy, officers
fired on the fleeing car. Steve Abraham, a nearby resident, was watching the
news at home when he heard gunshots down the street.
Abraham rushed outside to
investigate. Meza was bleeding on the curb in front of his house. A police officer
was tending to his wound.
"If all they were doing
was staking out a burglary suspect ... I don't know why guns had to be involved
at all," Abraham said in a prior interview with The Desert Sun. "I
don't want people shooting ... down my street. Somebody that you care about
might be standing in the way."
The police department has
admitted that Meza was inadvertently shot by an officer, but argued in court
that the officer's behavior had not risen to the level of battery or
negligence.
Doug Holland, an attorney for
the city of Palm Springs, said Thursday the settlement was proposed by a
mediator in the case and confirmed it will be recommended to the council.
Holland said he could not reveal the terms of the settlement.
Meza's attorney, Dale Galipo,
could not be reached for comment.
The council vote on this
shooting settlement will come less than a week after a major decision in
another Palm Springs police shooting. On Thursday, the Riverside County
District Attorney's Office announced that it would not file charges against two
officers who shot and killed a High Desert Marine two months before Meza was
hit by the stray bullet.
Cpl. Allan DeVillena II was
killed on Nov. 11, 2012 — the birthday of the Marine Corps. Nordman and another
officer, Mike Heron, shot a drunken DeVillena as he attempted to drive out of
the parking garage in downtown Palm Springs. Police have said that DeVillena
struck one of the officers with his car, prompting them to open fire, but at
least one witness has disputed this story.
The DeVillena shooting is the
subject of a second lawsuit, also filed in federal court. The City County will
be briefed on that lawsuit on Wednesday also.
