SAN JOSE, Calif. – In a landmark verdict that’s one of the highest of its kind nationwide, a federal jury awarded $21 million in damages to the family of 16-year-old Elena Mondragon, who was fatally shot by Fremont police over five years ago.
The seven-member jury found Friday night that three Fremont officers acted negligently during a covert operation in Hayward that ended with officers firing rifles into a moving BMW, killing Mondragon, who was a passenger in the car. Attorneys for the city argued to jurors that the driver, not police, was responsible for her death.
The city of Fremont will be on the hook for about $10.2 million of that amount, which would likely be the largest single payout resulting from a lawsuit against the city’s police department in its history. The man who was allegedly driving the BMW was ordered to pay the remaining amount.
“We hope a verdict like this sends the message that police departments need to humble themselves in the face of community demands that they do better,” said Adante Pointer, an attorney for Mondragon’s mother.
It is one of the biggest payouts ever for a police killing, larger than many similar incidents that have made national headlines. The George Floyd murder in Minneapolis led to a $27 million lawsuit settlement, while the family of Breonna Taylor settled a suit with Louisville, Kentucky, police for $12 million, for instance. Last December, a jury in Austin awarded $67 million to the family of a man killed by police, and three months ago, a San Diego jury returned an $85 million verdict in a wrongful death suit alleging police beat and tased a man to death.
In the Bay Area, recent lawsuit settlements have included figures as high as $7.3 million for officers in Pittsburg who kneeled on top of a man and didn’t notice that he was dying for several minutes, as well as a combined $9.4 million settlements for the families of two men killed by the same Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputy within a three-year span.
Lawsuits over police killings rarely go to trial in the Bay Area. That’s one of the things that made Mondragon’s case unique.
Mondragon, an Antioch resident, was one of four people inside a car driven by 19-year-old Rico Tiger, who authorities said was responsible for multiple violent armed robberies in Fremont and around the Bay Area. The Southern Alameda County Major Crimes Task Force, composed of members of multiple law enforcement agencies, were tracking a stolen BMW Tiger was driving to the City View Apartment complex in Hayward on March 14, 2017.
Tiger was charged with murdering Mondragon under the state’s provocative act doctrine, which holds people liable when someone else uses lethal self-defense. The case is still pending.
Fremont Sgt. Jeremy Miskella and Officers Ghailan Chahouati and Joel Hernandez were part of the task force, which planned to block Tiger’s car into the parking lot in the complex with an undercover police minivan and arrest him.
After Tiger was seen by officers returning to the car with Mondragon and two others, officers were delayed slightly by a resident pulling into the lot. Tiger began to pull out of a parking space, when Chahouati pulled the van “nose to nose” with the bumper of the BMW, briefly “chirped” the siren, and Hernandez activated police lights in the visor, the officers’ attorney Patrick Moriarty said during the trial.
Sgt. Jeremy Miskella was slightly behind the van driving a Honda Pilot. The officers then got out of the cars, Miskella and Hernandez aimed rifles at the BMW, and the officers gave commands to Tiger, Moriarty said.
Tiger backed up the BMW, revved its engine then tried to flee by driving forward and squeezing the BMW through a small space between the police vehicles and a carport with vehicles parked in it.
Hernandez, who said he thought Chahouati had been killed, fired two shots from a rifle at the car as it drove by, and Miskella fired five shots from a rifle.
One of Miskella’s shots hit Mondragon, who was in the front passenger seat of the BMW, cutting through her chest and lodging in her spine. She died from her injuries later that night during emergency surgery, according to medical records. It was later confirmed by medical officials that Mondragon was pregnant at the time of her death.
During the trial, attorneys Moriarty and John Robinson said Mondragon’s death was a tragedy, but not something the officers were responsible for. They emphasized the recklessness of Tiger, who remains in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin awaiting trial. To prove the murder, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is arguing a legal theory that says the officers used lawful force because of Tiger’s actions, making him criminally liable for her death. He has pleaded not guilty.
One of the key points of contention in the case was where Miskella was standing when he fired the final two rounds, one of which was likely the one that proved fatal for Mondragon. The family’s attorneys argued he was out of harm’s way, while the officers’ attorneys said he was nearly hit by the BMW and feared for his life.
The jury ultimately decided, after about two days of deliberation, that Tiger was 51% responsible for Mondragon’s death, while Miskella was 25% responsible. Chahouati and Hernandez were both 12% responsible, the jury decided, according to attorneys for Mondragon’s family and a Fremont city spokesperson.
“This verdict is a monument to justice,” Pointer said in an interview Friday night.
“I think this verdict says that our community is unwilling to give officers a free pass to behave recklessly, and then in the aftermath, take a position that they cannot be held accountable for their reckless conduct,” Pointer said.
The city can still appeal the verdict.
Fremont spokesperson Geneva Bosques declined to comment on the verdict Friday night, but said the city is reviewing the outcome and conferring with its legal team.
