Trial begins in $2 million lawsuit alleging Sacramento police officer groped suspect

More than seven years after a Sacramento police officer arrested Candida Johnson in connection with a cellphone theft, jury selection began Monday for a federal lawsuit seeking more than $2 million over her claims that the officer sexually molested her during the incident.

In a 2018 federal lawsuit against the Sacramento Police Department and former Officer Patrick Mulligan, Johnson alleges that Mulligan groped her breasts, ran his hands between her legs and penetrated her vagina through her yoga pants with his finger.

“What is at issue is the fact that Officer Mulligan sexually molested Ms. Johnson,” according to the suit, filed on Johnson’s behalf by Sacramento attorneys Jeffrey Kravitz and Jose Valdez.

“He was the officer who transported her to the jail and while there, in an area with no cameras and with his body camera off, he put his hand into her pants and put his finger in Ms. Johnson’s vagina, thereby violating her rights to bodily integrity guaranteed by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.”

Mulligan, who retired from the department the year after the alleged incident, has forcefully denied the accusations, and attorneys for the city said in court filings that there is no evidence on in-car camera video to support Johnson’s claims.

“At no time either on video or microphone is Officer Mulligan demonstrating any inappropriate behavior whatsoever,” Senior Deputy City Attorney Sean Richmond wrote in the city’s trial brief. “The actual arrest and pat-down of plaintiff are not captured on video, however, it can be heard over the microphone and there is no indication that plaintiff was being assaulted by Officer Mulligan, i.e. no audible objection, no audible manifestation of pain or violation.

“The elapsed time of the pat-down was approximately ten seconds.”

The city maintains that after Johnson was placed in the back seat of Mulligan’s police car for the ride to the Main Jail downtown, there was no sign she was under duress.

“She is seen casually conversing with Officer Mulligan with no demonstration of distress one would expect from someone who had just experienced a sexual assault,” Richmond wrote. “In fact, she apologized to Officer Mulligan repeatedly for the trouble she caused in getting arrested.

“Her complaint alleges that he ‘taunted and intimidated’ her during the ride, which is simply untrue based on the video evidence.”

After the lawsuit was filed in 2018, Mulligan told The Sacramento Bee that Johnson’s claim was “completely false.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of this, and I imagine if there was a claim like that you better believe they’d be calling me in on that,” he said then. “They’d be putting a warrant out for my arrest.”

The District Attorney’s Office ultimately dismissed charges against Johnson stemming from the arrest, court records say, and her attorneys say she had no previous issues with law enforcement.

“Candida Johnson is an African American woman, who prior to this incident has never had any adverse contact with the police department,” her attorneys wrote. “At the time of this incident, she was 45 years old.

“She has worked in Sacramento as a television reporter. She also organizes a dance class and Girls Self Esteem program associated with a church. Prior to the incident, she frequently worked with the police and invited them to speak at events in her classes.

“She is well known for her honesty and integrity.”

In contrast, Johnson’s attorneys have portrayed Mulligan in court papers as “a bad cop,” writing that “numerous police disciplinary records” reflect that he is “dishonest and insubordinate” and was demoted from sergeant to beat cop.

“He once told another officer accused of sexually molesting a female arrestee that ‘he better get his ducks in order’ before speaking to Internal Affairs,” court papers say. “He did this in direct violation of orders, so he could impede an investigation.

“He expressed open hostility to the idea of police disciplinary procedures at his deposition.”

The city has objected to including portions of Mulligan’s disciplinary records as evidence, writing in court documents that they were compiled years before the incident with Johnson.

Johnson’s attorneys are seeking more than $1 million each in compensatory and punitive damages at the upcoming trial before U.S. District Judge Daniel J. Calabretta.

“The plaintiff has suffered from the severe trauma of a sexual assault,” they wrote in court documents. “Her sense of well-being and security have been shattered.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2023 at 9:34 AM.