VPOA, Nichelini sue for alleged damages
Officer is seeking no less than $7.5 million according to lawsuit
Michael Nichelini and his organization, the Vallejo Police Officers Association, on Friday filed a $7.5 million suit against the City of Vallejo and its police department over alleged damages, ranging from free speech to procedural due process violations.
Nichelini is on paid leave since July for allegedly destroying evidence in the Sean Monterrosa case.
The 22-year-old Monterrosa was shot and killed in the Walgreen’s parking lot on June 2, prompting a federal civil rights lawsuit. Monterrosa was shot through a windshield by Vallejo Police Officer Jarrett Tonn, who thought Monterrosa was carrying a gun, when in fact it was a hammer. Nichelini allegedly replaced the windshield that was shot through during the incident.
Nichelini has been a police officer since 1996, formerly serving in Oakland until he was hired for Vallejo by Chief Robert Nichelini, his father, in 2006.
The suit, filed by Michael Nichelini’s lawyers David E. Mastagini, Tashayla D. Billington and Cheryl Carlson of Mastagni Holsted, alleges claims against the Vallejo Police Department, Chief of Police Shawny Williams, City
Manager Greg Nyhoff, Assistant City Manager Anne Cardwell, and members of the Vallejo City Council, including Mayor Robert McConnell.
“The merits of the suit will be judged by the proper court based upon facts yet to be discovered,” said McConnell on Saturday. “It is the public who will judge those who filed the lawsuit and their reasons for doing so. This will be an interesting ongoing story. Wonder if the honorable Nichelini will invoke the blue wall of silence.
“This is all over a lawsuit I have yet to read, nor been served with by the plaintiff,” McConnell continued. “Fortunately I know how to return fire literally and legally.”
The City of Vallejo, said on Saturday it has not been served with the complaint.
“What we can say now is that there are always two sides to every story, and the City looks forward to providing a public response to these allegations,” read a statement made by the city
of Vallejo and Communications and Public Information Officer, Christina Lee.
Former Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan, who said he has not read the suit yet, nor been served by the plaintiff, pointed to Michael Nichelini’s “anger” as a reason for the suit.
“If a person feels this way, they have the right to file a lawsuit,” Sampayan said. “That being said, they also have to prove the case in front of a jury with facts. Obviously, he’s (Michael Nichelini) is very angry and he’s seeking damages for his anger.”
The alleged damages Michael Nichelini mentions in the lawsuit concern:
• Violations of free speech, free association, procedural due process, substantive due process, equal protection, federal privacy rights, state privacy rights
• First Amendment retaliation
• Defamation
• Interference with union activities
• Discrimination
• Retaliation
• California Labor Code violations
• Negligence
• Negligent supervision
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress
“This federal civil rights and state law action arises out of a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and retaliation against the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association, its members, and its current President, Vallejo Police Department Lieutenant Michael Nichelini, by the VPD and all defendants, including the City of Vallejo, culminating in multiple baseless internal affairs investigations into the VPOA’s protected union-related activities and the City’s continued threats and actions to terminate Lieutenant Nichelini’s employment,” the suit reads.
The suit goes on to state the Vallejo and the VPD have been ” in public controversy for over a decade regarding the conduct of the VPD and the City’s ratification of that conduct.” It goes on to talk about how tensions rose even more in 2019 after the shooting death by the VPD of Willie McCoy, which resulted
in the eventual replacement of the Police Chief and election of Lieutenant Michael Nichelini as the new VPOA President.
“Shortly after becoming VPOA President, Mr. Nichelini became the subject of harassment and intimidation efforts by VPD Police Chief, Defendant Shawny Williams (“Williams”), ratified by the City Defendants, in order to alleviate mounting political pressure by placing that pressure on the VPOA and its President,” the suit reads. “Between January 2020 and December 2020, President Nichelini was subjected to at least five instances of harassment, each intended to interfere with the VPOA’s concerted rights. On July 15, 2020, Williams placed Mr. Nichelini on administrative leave and barred him from the workplace. Williams’ action effectively prevented Nichelini from meeting with and representing VPOA members.”
The suit goes on to say that on Dec. 15, Williams had VPD Deputy Chief Michael Kihmm notify President Michael Nichelini that he was the subject of an internal affairs investigation regarding VPOA correspondence with a
member of the news media. Michael Nichelini was notified and told that the investigation “could potentially lead to discipline.”
The suit says that the notice further falsely accused President Nichelini of “sending an inappropriate and potentially threatening email to a member of the media.’”
The email the suit is referring to is one from Nichelini to a former San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor. Taylor has left the paper to work for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution but before then he received an email that said, “Looks like 2021 will be a little bit better not having your biased and unformed (sic) articles printed in the newspaper that only inflame the public … You have never looked at the truth in any of your writings. We will warn our Georgia colleagues of your impending arrival.”
Nichelini’s lawyer admitted that he sent it but has said that the statement was made out of frustration. Taylor said that he felt the email was a “veiled threat.”
Nichelini also came under controversy in 2020 for an email that contained a small image of one of VPD’s earliest historic badges. The badge is
engraved with a Gammadion cross, or swastika.
“The badge once belonged to local hero George N. Frazier, veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I, who served as both a VPD officer and a detective for the Solano County Sheriff’s Office in the early 1900s,” the suit reads. “President Nichelini sent the email from his personal computer, using an application he wanted to encourage VPOA members to use for communication amongst themselves. Since the image of the badge was tiny, President Nichelini did not notice Mr. Frazier’s badge bore a small engraving of a Gammadion cross, a Native American symbol for peace and prosperity. When Mr. Frazier, a Native American, placed the engraving on the badge, circa 1907, the image bore no negative connotations.”
On Dec. 21, Michael Nichelini received notice that the City of Vallejo intended to terminate his employment with the VPD.
Calls to Michael Nichelini’s lawyers were not met as of press time.