1-mph DUI arrest leads to suspect permanently paralyzed by California cops, lawsuit says

Gregory Gross was a 64-year-old truck driver from Yuba City when police came to the door of an apartment he was in on April 12, 2020.

Gross’ attorney, Moseley Collins of Sacramento, says officers were investigating a 1-mph rear-end collision in a parking lot that caused no injuries or damage, and Yuba City police ultimately arrested Gross on suspicion of driving under the influence and other misdemeanor vehicle violations.

By the time police escorted Gross into Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville to be checked before he was booked, Gross had suffered a spinal cord injury that left him permanently paralyzed, the result of one of the officers sweeping the handcuffed suspect’s legs out from under him and sending him crashing face-first into the ground, a new lawsuit filed by Collins against Yuba City and the officers alleges.

“Mr. Gross was still handcuffed at this time,” according to the lawsuit, filed late Tuesday in Sutter Superior Court against the city and Officers Joshua Jackson, Scott Hansen and Nathan Livingston. “While being brutally slammed to the ground, Mr. Gross’s head and face struck the ground, breaking Mr. Gross’s nose, breaking a vertebra in his neck, tearing ligaments in his neck, causing spinal cord damage, paralysis, and ... bleeding.”

Yuba City police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

But the lawsuit, which is based in part on footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras, says police never gave Gross a warning that they were about to use force against him, and that Gross was not resisting.

“Put on your big boy pants, you want to act like a man,” one of the officers can be heard telling Gross on video as he is face down on the grass outside the hospital.

“Get me up, please,” Gross moans. “Get me up, please.”

“Stand up, c’mon, you’re a man, be a man,” an officer replies as the police try to lift Gross up.

“I can’t feel my legs,” Gross says.

“You can feel your legs,” an officer replies.

“I can’t feel my legs, I’m sorry, I can’t feel my legs,” Gross says. “Dear God, dear God, I can’t feel my legs, I can’t feel my arms, sir.”

“Mr. Gross, we are done with your silly little games,” an officer says as Gross is taken in a wheelchair into the hospital emergency department, according to the video.

“He was assisted to the ground,” an officer tells a medical worker inside as Gross is wheeled inside with blood pouring from his nose at about 2:45 p.m. “The nose thing just happened in the grass out there.”

Despite repeatedly telling medical workers he could not feel his legs, Gross was not diagnosed with quadriplegia until 10:49 p.m., the lawsuit says, and in the meantime he was lifted into a bed and had his neck and back pushed forward.

“Mr. Gross was subjected to negligence by the police officers and negligent medical care by the Rideout Memorial Hospital medical staff that caused damage to his spinal cord,” the suit says. “During this time, no steps were taken to protect Mr. Gross’s neck and spinal cord from further injury.

“Neither Officer Jackson nor Officer Hansen requested Mr. Gross’s neck and spinal cord be protected, although they had a duty to do so. The medical staff also repeatedly failed to take any steps to protect his neck and spinal cord. The negligence of the police officers and the Rideout medical staff ... were each a substantial cause of further damages to Mr. Gross’s spinal cord.”

Video identified as being from Jackson’s body camera shows an officer explaining to a doctor that he swept Gross’ feet out in hopes of getting him to land on his knees.

“So, he didn’t like, just, face plant?” the doctor asks.

“No, that would be wrong,” the officer replies, according to video Collins’ office provided.

Officials from Rideout, which is the subject of a separate medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Collins, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Collins planned a news conference Wednesday afternoon with Gross in Sacramento to announce the lawsuit and to present a compilation of the body camera video from the incident, as well as video of Gross in the aftermath, who is now 65 and says he is unable to walk or get out of bed on his own.

“I’m in this hospital bed in the living room here and I can’t do anything,” gross says on the video. “My hands don’t work, and that’s another thing, too. I can’t write, I can’t open my hands to grab anything because the injury caused paralysis in my fingers.

“It’s not the way I envisioned my later years in life, you know.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 2:00 PM.