Lawsuit takes aim at police training

Seven plaintiffs sue San Jose department over policies, injuries

SANJOSE>> A federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of seven people injured by police projectiles while observing or peacefully participating in police violence demonstrations this year in downtown San Jose alleges that overly aggressive crowd control tactics were compounded by an absence of training in the weapons that have since been permanently shelved for these scenarios.

The violence between police and protesters drew national scorn to San Jose as it joined an array of big cities broadcasting nonstop images of people, most of whom were nonviolent, facing volleys of rubber bullets as well as stun grenades and tear gas canisters.

Besides unspecified monetary damages for the plaintiffs, the lawsuit, filed over the weekend by local civil rights attorney Sarah Marinho, also seeks court oversight of San Jose Police Department reforms covering changes in crowd control and public demonstration response, tear gas deployment and its use of “less lethal” munitions.

“Court oversight is necessary at this point,” Marinho said Monday. “It’s great they say they want to revise their policy and proceed differently. But they didn’t follow their existing policies in many ways.”

Among the plaintiffs are Derrick Sanderlin, a community activist and one-time police bias trainer who, while trying to help de-escalate tension between police protesters, was hit in the groin by a rubber bullet on May 29 near City Hall. Sanderlin suffered a serious injury that could affect his ability

to have children.

The lawsuit alleges that Officer Jared Yuen, whose profane and aggressive outbursts while manning a skirmish line went viral and brought him national infamy, was the officer who injured Sanderlin. Yuen is also the subject of a tort claim against the city by Tim Harper, who alleges he was shot in the stomach by the officer with no provocation, hours after he helped carry an injured officer to safety.

Another plaintiff is Shante Thomas, who was watching the demonstrations from her third-floor apartment on Santa Clara Street on the night of May 30 when a series of 13 police projectiles were fired into her dwelling, along with a tear gas canister.

Thomas, who was hit in the chest and was also injured by broken glass, alleges that the violence was in retaliation to her criticizing police and recording video of them, but police claimed someone was throwing beer bottles at them. She accuses Sgt. Jonathan Byers of making up the bottle attack and firing into her apartment; the lawsuit details a history of excessive force claims against him.

Other plaintiffs include Joseph Stukes, who contends he was demonstrating peacefully on June 2, after the city’s hastily imposed 8:30 p.m. curfew. During a kettling maneuver — in which police essentially corral a group of people deemed to be unlawfully assembling — he was brought to the ground, he said. Before he could get up, he was fired at with an array of projectiles, and was hit in both hips.

Cayla Sanderlin, Derrick’s wife and another plaintiff, described having to wade through tear gas while trying to get her husband help following his injury. That same day, Adira Sharkey, a San Jose educator, alleges she was at César Chávez Park when she was blindsided by a rubber bullet in her ribs that left her struggling to breathe.

Pietro Di Donato, 75, had also headed out that day to watch the demonstrations after seeing them on television. He was shot in the leg by a projectile while pleading with police to end their aggression, especially against the young protesters he was marching with, according to the lawsuit.

Breanna Contreras, 21, recalls in the lawsuit that she was standing on a sidewalk with her sister near Santa Clara and Seventh streets when she was hit in the right temple by a police projectile with no warning, causing her eye to swell shut.

The named defendants in the lawsuit are the City of San Jose, police Chief Eddie Garcia, special-operations Capt. Jason Dwyer, Yuen, Byers and Sgt. Chris Sciba. SJPD referred a request for comment to the city attorney’s office, citing the pending litigation.

City Attorney Rick Doyle declined specific comment on the lawsuit on similar grounds, but said “the city does take the allegations seriously.”

The lawsuit singles out

Sciba, noting his role in preparing training materials for using less-lethal munitions, which included “a cartoon that mocks shots to the groin,” according to the filing, and “includes no mention of de-escalation, and the final slide synthesizes the SJPD message to trainees regarding use of ‘lesslethal’ weapons: ‘Do not hesitate. Always win.’ ”

Sciba is one of four active officers who was placed on leave following the surfacing of racist and anti-Muslim Facebook posts by SJPD officers both in public posts and in a defunct San Jose police alumni page, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Another major deficiency alleged by the lawsuit was the police authorization of officers to use the projectile weapons despite not being formally trained in using them. Citing the results of a public records request, Marinho said she discovered that Yuen was not among the officers listed as having received such training in the past five years.

In the first three days of the downtown protests, more than 600 rubber and foam rounds were deployed, according to the department’s own figures. It’s why Marinho believes that court intervention is necessary at this point to assure lasting reform.

“I don’t want their reassurances that they’re changing,” she said. “I want a court to order them to revise accordingly and follow it. We’re way beyond verbal reassurances.”