Man who lost eye leads a class-action suit
Acosta, hit in head by police projectile in May, joined by other injured demonstrators
SAN JOSE >> A man who lost an eye from being hit by a police projectile during the heart of last summer’s George Floyd demonstrations in downtown San Jose is among several plaintiffs in a new federal lawsuit filed against the city and Police Department.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday and seeks class-action status for the scores of people injured by officers’ prolific use of rubber bullets and chemical weapons. It is the largest lawsuit filed from the fallout from the summer protests.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco Bay Area and three prominent police misconduct litigators who authored the filing also are asking courts to compel wholesale changes in police training and policies that authorized the violence that drew national infamy to the city.
Michael Acosta, a 49-year-old downtown San Jose resident, was running errands the afternoon of May 29 when he came upon passionate but increasingly contentious demonstrations protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a few days earlier. What he didn’t know was that police were closing in on the aftermath of a scene in which a man was arrested after driving his SUV into a crowd of demonstrators.
Within moments, Acosta said he was hit “in the eye with an impact munition” fired by San Jose police officers, according to the lawsuit.
At a Zoom news conference March 11, Acosta described how he would later learn that his eye was ruptured and that removing it was the best hope for preserving vision in his remaining eye.
“Everything happened so fast,” Acosta said. “It was honestly terrifying. I felt helpless and afraid.”
Acosta, who now uses a prosthetic, added that he lost months of work and continues to suffer numbness on the left side of his face. He also said his vision has decreased, marked by problems focusing and seeing at night.
“I have only acquired a limited sense of normalcy,” he said, adding that he just recently drove for the first time in nine months. “The world seems darker sometimes.”
Another plaintiff, Joseph Cañas, also was hit in the eye by a police munition as he played guitar during the same day of protests as Acosta. Other plaintiffs described being hit by munitions, bludgeoned by officers, injured by tear gas and other chemical weapons. They also described suffering from residual effects including post-traumatic stress.
Recently elected Assembly member Alex Lee is also a plaintiff who counts himself among several people claiming to have been wrongfully arrested for violating a controversial curfew set by the city in early June, which was rescinded after a few days and ultimately did not yield any criminal charges or citations for standalone violations.
Besides the city, the defendants in the lawsuit include Mayor Sam Liccardo, City Manager David Sykes, former Police Chief Eddie Garcia, Capt. Jason Dwyer, Sgt. Ronnie Lopez, Sgt. Lee Tassio and officers Jared Yuen, Sean Michael Curry and Fnu Delgado.
Yuen drew particular infamy after he appeared on viral videos profanely antagonizing protesters. He also has been named in at least two other lawsuits stemming from the protests.
The Police Department de
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