Citrus Heights wanted this $1.2 million payout in police excessive force lawsuit kept secret
When Citrus Heights police pinned a shirtless James Bradford Nelson III to the pavement at a KFC restaurant on June 23, 2017, the temperature of the asphalt was estimated to be 170 degrees, eight degrees higher than what it takes to instantly destroy human skin.
Nelson, who was 27 at the time and had lived with schizophrenia for years, was detained after a day of mental episodes that ended with him in the parking lot, where he was accused of trying to take a restaurant employee’s wallet, a charge that later was dropped.
The Stockton man was held face down on the pavement – handcuffed – on that 100 degree afternoon for approximately five minutes as he screamed and flailed about. After officers helped him up and saw his burns, they poured water over him and called for an ambulance.
By the time Nelson got to the UC Davis Medical Center, his body temperature was 108 degrees, and he had second- and third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body. He suffered kidney failure, shock and permanent disfigurement.
“Nelson nearly died from these injuries and required months of immediate care at the UC Davis Medical Center,” according to an excessive force lawsuit filed on his behalf in Sacramento federal court last year after Nelson’s lawyers sought $26 million in damages from Citrus Heights.
Two weeks ago, Citrus Heights officials quietly agreed to settle the lawsuit for $1.2 million and a written promise by Nelson and his attorneys not to contact the media or discuss the settlement.
The Sacramento Bee obtained the settlement through a California Public Records Act request to the city clerk.
The settlement, which includes a stipulation that $101,603.56 go to the California Department of Health Care Services “to satisfy the lien for the reasonable value of medical services provided to Nelson,” also states that the city and the officers sued for their actions that day are not liable for any wrongdoing.
Police case settled for $1.2 million
Nelson attorney Mark Thiel did not respond to a request for comment, and terms of the settlement agreement explicitly limit what he could say.
“Both the city and Nelson agree not to initiate any communication with the press or media about this litigation,” the settlement reads. “Nelson and his attorneys agree not to disclose the terms of the settlement and not to contact the media.
“If Nelson or his attorneys are contacted by the press or the media regarding the case, Nelson or his attorneys will not make any statements to the press or the media other than to say ‘The matter has been resolved.’”
Those restrictions are a pattern for Citrus Heights officials, who in 2015 agreed to pay $2 million to the parents of Hunter Todd, a 20-year-old unarmed man killed by Citrus Heights Officer Ryan Smith, who fired six rounds into his body.
That settlement agreement said that “because of the sensitivities of this case” those involved are not to contact the media or any other entity.
The settlement also said Todd’s parents could not comment on the shooting beyond a three-paragraph public statement that said Todd “did not have a criminal history, was not a gang member and was not armed during his brief contact with Officer Smith.”
The agreement also precluded the parties from “posting ... any comments on social media about this case.”
Todd’s parents, Terry Todd and Devra Selenis, later learned from their attorney that they could speak out because the settlement was made with public funds, and they subsequently discussed the struggles they had trying to get information from Citrus Heights and pushing for charges against the officer.
“We’d like to follow it as far as we can until they tell us we can’t go any farther,” Selenis told The Bee in 2016. “If there’s a jury to decide the officer needs to be charged with a crime, if they tell us no, then it’s as far as we can go. We’ve done everything we can as Hunter’s parents to try and get justice for him.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 11:33 AM.