A Protestor Unjustly Injured By Police Officer is Awarded $1.3M After Trial

During a peaceful protest in 2020 in the Black Lives Matter movement, following the police murder of George Floyd, San Jose police officers fired their “less lethal” weapons into the crowd. Our client took a rubber bullet to the back of his leg, leaving him with blood clots and a lifetime risk of pulmonary embolisms, of which he has already had two. The defendants, City of San Jose and a named officer, attempted to get the case dismissed, but the McManis Faulkner team was successful in defeating the motion. At the conclusion of discovery, defendants again tried to get the case thrown out by way of summary judgment. Once more, our team was successful in defeating the summary judgment motion and moving the case forward.

After a hard-fought trial and three days of deliberations, the jury returned a favorable verdict, awarding our client $1.3M in damages for the following claims: violation of the First and Fourth Amendments, violation of the California Bane Act, battery, and negligence. This was a good win for our client, our firm, and the community.