$3.9M settlement to be paid to mentally disabled man tased, beaten by San Leandro police

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - The City of San Leandro will pay a $3.9 million settlement to a mentally disabled man who was tased and beaten by officers in 2019. The settlement stems from a civil rights lawsuit, attorneys for the victim said on Monday. 

The officers were accused of destroying evidence from the incident. The victim, Sorrell Shiflett, 37, is represented by Oakland's Pointer & Buelna, Lawyers for the People. 

Shiflett was dressed as the anime character Naruto, when he encountered police officers on Oct. 6, 2019. He was walking around town in costume before sunrise with his cousin when officers got a call that suspicious men were walking around carrying bags in San Leandro. 

Officers Ismael Navarro, K-9 Officer Ahthony Pantoja responded to the scene to question the men. 

Shiflett's attorneys said their client consented to being searched, but became frightened and took off running. Meanwhile, he was ordered to put his hands behind his back. Shiflett's attorneys said their client was trying to get help from his father to explain his mental disability and because he was having trouble understanding why police were trying to detain him. 

Shiflett suffered a brain injury when he was robbed at gunpoint in 2008, leaving him with cognitive difficulties, slowed speech and a child-like state of mind. 

The two officers chased Shiflett before he turned around and walked back towards the officers in an attempt to surrender. 

The officers did not provide body-camera footage of the incident. However, according to Shiflett's attorneys, they did admit to striking him with their baton and tasing him despite neither officer saying Shiflett tried to cause them any harm. 

Navarro failed to save his body camera footage, while Pantoja did not activate his body camera until after his use of force, Shiflett's attorneys said. 

"These officers violated Mr. Shiflett's rights by first unlawfully arresting and then beating him with a baton and shocking him an unknown number of times with a Taser causing Mr. Shiflett to suffer two brain bleeds and a separated shoulder that required multiple surgeries," said civil rights attorney Adante Pointer. 

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San Leandro police destroy evidence after tasing disabled man in 'Naruto' costume: lawsuit

A disabled San Leandro man who was stunned with a Taser and beaten with batons by police when he was dressed as the anime character, Naruto, is now accusing an officer of destroying critical evidence of what happened to him.

Pointer said the officers "dumped" his client at a nearby hospital. 

"Despite knowing how seriously he was injured, the Police Department inexplicably allowed the most critical items of evidence, including two of the responding officers' bodycam videos and a Taser log, to be destroyed in an effort to cover up the officers' misdeeds," said Pointer. "They also failed to conduct a subsequent internal affairs investigation as required by their own policy." 

The city of San Leandro issued a statement regarding the settlement. They said Shiflett, the plaintiff, was on active probation and admitted to having a throwing knife in his possession. The spokesperson added that officers used force to detain and arrest Shiflett after he ran from them. 

In addition, San Leandro police said they updated their body-worn camera recording retention policy in 2022. They are now required to retain the footage for up to seven years. The police department had previously said the body camera footage in this case was saved, but only for one year before it was automatically purged, as that was their previous policy. 

The City of San Leandro said the settlement does not indicate any admission of liability or wrongdoing by the city or any San Leandro police officers. 

"Officer Ismael Navarro is still a current Police Officer with the San Leandro Police Department, and Officer Anthony Pantoja is no longer employed by the City of San Leandro," a city spokesperson said. 

All charges against Shiflett stemming from this case were dropped in a matter of weeks, his attorneys said.