The $800,000 shooting

"He was shot with no warning."

---Theresa Cloud, addressing the CPRC




The lawyers who represented the family of Douglas Steven Cloud issued a release that the law suit filed in connection with the November 2006 fatal officer-involved shooting of Cloud by two Riverside Police Department officers has been settled not long after depositions were taken of the officers involved as well as other witnesses.

The price paid by the city? About $800,000.

This settlement dwarfs the $395,000 paid out on the lawsuit filed in the 2005 fatal shooting of Summer Marie Lane and is likely to be considerably higher than the settlement about to be finalized in a lawsuit filed in relation to the 2006 fatal shooting of Lee Deante Brown. Did the city settle because of anticipated litigation costs or did it settle because it feared the dollar value might go higher if the case went to the CPRC first?

And that's what is so interesting. That the city finalized the settlement not long before the Community Police Review Commission was finally briefed by its own investigator, Butch Warnberg almost 18 months after Cloud was shot by Officers David Johansen and Nicholas Vasquez. They shot him not long after he crashed his car into a truck and knocking down a small palm tree, which wedged under his smashed vehicle after fleeing a shoplifting incident at a local business.



Summary of the shooting from Warnberg's report:


Date: Oct. 8, 2006

Time: 4:18 p.m.

Place: Home Depot 3323 Madison St.



Riverside Police Department officer, Jeffrey Putnam was arresting someone at the Home Depot store when he saw Douglas Steven Cloud running through the parking lot while carrying a large box and being chased by store employees.

Cloud had entered into the store and left with a paint sprayer valued at $298 without paying and then ran from the building. He was pursued by several employees and customers. Putman and other store employees watched the activities including a fight and Cloud fleeing the parking lot in his car.

An employee and two customers tried to detain Cloud while another individual grabbed the paint sprayer from his car. As Cloud backed his car out, a man fell in his path. An employee pulled the man to safety, narrowly missing contact with Cloud's car.

Cloud then drove west-bound at high speeds down Indiana. When he reached Jefferson Street, Cloud lost control of his car and hit a truck in front of a dealership.

The sales manager of the store and multiple employees and other people watched the accident from different locations. Cloud's vehicle sheared off a palm tree and experienced severe damage. It was pinned on a palm tree and appeared stuck. The sales manager, Fred Cagle, ran to the driver's side and talked to Cloud to assess his injuries.

Meanwhile, Putman had broadcast the theft as a 211 or robbery and provided a description of Cloud's car. Within minutes, Officers Brett Stennett and Nicholas Vasquez arrived at the crash site. Officer David Johansen then arrived as did Officers Eric Meier and Brian Crawford. They ran and approached the driver's side of Cloud's car. Eleven officers in total arrived at the scene within seconds of one another. Cagle and other witnesses stepped away but continued to watch what was taking place.

Officers initially ordered Cloud to leave the vehicle at gunpoint. When he either refused or was unable to obey, officers reached inside and in a hands-on manner, attempting to pull Cloud from the vehicle through his window. A struggle resulted. During it, the engine stated to accelerate. As the car was in forward gear, the driver's side rear tire started to spin tossing up dirt and other debris.




The struggle lasted seconds. Cloud was released or broke free, the vehicle accelerated but couldn't move and debris was flung up. Vasquez drew his weapon and fired four times. Johansen fired his weapon once. All five shots hit Cloud and he died at the scene.



More information on the Cloud shooting here.

More to come here as well.



Settlements and Trial Verdicts for wrongful death/excessive force cases:

Tyisha Miller (1998) $3 million

Douglas Steven Cloud (2006) $800,000

Hector Islas (1997) $790,000

Derek Hayward (1994) $715,000

Jose Martinez (1997) $550,000

Riverside's emergency vehicles will be able to control the traffic signals in all the city's intersections.





More information on Riverside's plans to not seek future annexations. I guess Riverside's city council has finally figured out the city's coffers can't afford providing infrastructure including public safety for these areas. How it will handle the annexations that are already planned as it's cutting its budget citywide in any department covered by its general fund remains to be seen.

Some residents living in some of the areas in question couldn't be happier about the news that they aren't set to be part of Riverside.



(excerpt)



The largest potential annexation on hold includes 5,044 acres between the city's southern border and Lake Mathews. Cindy Ferry, who lives near Lake Mathews, said she is glad the city is backing off.

She wants to keep the city's borders as far away from her 7 acres as possible, she said.

"If the city is pulling back on trying to annex this area, it couldn't please this community more," she said. "We are rural people that can't live in the city. We need elbow room."

Ferry said she treasures her rustic lifestyle, raising her own cattle, rabbits and chickens for food. She doesn't want the sidewalks, sewers, curbs and streetlights that come with city life. Her roosters crow at 3 a.m. and she likes that they don't disturb neighbors.

"I will fight to keep this area rural as long as I am alive and here," she said.




That of course wouldn't be possible if her neck of the woods was added to Riverside, where the word "rural" has become a four-letter word.





Orange County Sheriff's Department will now have a civilian review agency overseeing it, according to the Los Angeles Times.


(excerpt)


The plan, put forward in May by board Chairman John Moorlach, creates a review board modeled on one used in Los Angeles County to take citizen complaints, investigate deaths and serious injuries involving Sheriff's Department personnel, and examine all deaths in custody.


The board voted to move forward with the idea last spring, over the opposition of then-Sheriff Michael S. Carona, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and the union representing sheriff's deputies.

But over the last several months, opposition was winnowed down. Carona left office after his indictment on federal corruption charges, and his replacement, acting Sheriff Jack Anderson, has supported the plan.




The detective who fired first never identified himself as a police officer.

These were the words of one of the dancers at the Queens night club as she testified in the trial of three New York City Police Department officers who were charged in the onduty shooting death of Sean Bell.

And so went day three in the bench trial while protests took place outside the courthouse.



(excerpt, New York Daily News )


"He was standing in front of the minivan with the door open," Marseilles Payne testified in Queens Supreme Court. "I saw the fire, like three times. Then I turned and I ran."

The gunman was NYPD Detective Michael Oliver, who is on trial with two other detectives for killing Bell in a 50-bullet barrage outside a seedy Queens nightclub.

Asked if she heard anyone yell "police" before the shooting, Payne answered, "No, I didn't hear nothing."

"Once I got into the bushes, I squatted down and put my head in my arms and I waited for the gunshots to stop. There was a pause. I thought the shooting was over."

Then, she said, "The gunshots started again."





Juan Gonzalez, a columnist with the New York Daily News discusses the testimony of Marseilles Payne, who knocked holes in the defense's version of events as well as those provided by the police department after the shooting.

In her account, the officer who fired his gun first was also the one who more than half the bullets. And that was Det. Michael Oliver, not the one listed in department accounts who was Det. Gescard Isnora.



(excerpt)



The account she gave of the moments leading up to the death of Bell and the wounding of his two friends on the morning of Nov. 25, 2006, starkly contradicts the official police version. It also contradicts the story put forward by the cops' lawyers.

Her testimony was filled with vivid details, and defense lawyers for the three cops seemed unable to shake her in their withering cross-examination.

If they are to win, they must demolish her story and credibility when they present their case.

It won't be easy.




Andrea Peyser, columnist for the New York Post questioned Payne's testimony including her unwillingness to cooperate initially with police investigators.


(excerpt)


She left the club and a man, who turned out to be a cop, tried to pick her up for money. But Trini, who might have recognized the man as a cop, said, "I don't do dates."

Then, she saw a car crash into a minivan. Then a man got out of the van's passenger door.

"He just started shooting," she said. She started to cry.

At one point, she claimed the gunfire went on for "minutes," in which she ran into some bushes. After a three-second pause, it started again. "I just dropped down and put my head between my legs."

Then she ran back to the club, and screamed, "They're shooting down the block. They're killing those boys!"

But it became clear under cross-examination that Trini never wanted to cooperate with authorities.

"I didn't need to get involved. I'm a single mom! I wanted to get out of this neighborhood. I don't need this drama in my life! . . . I'm the one suffering! Me and my kids.

"This is causing me so much pain. But I decided to tell the truth and do the right thing."





Former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson will get all his possessions back. He's also going back to New York for another appearance on the Today show.

This is taking place as his sons receive subpoenas to appear before the grand jury.