Law&Crime Sidebar - Man Having Seizure Was Tased in Violent Police Encounter: Lawsuit

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Representatives for Jack Bruce say he experienced his first major seizure while driving in Hercules, California last year. Despite acknowledging that Bruce may still be experiencing a seizure or its after effects, police officers pulled Bruce from the car and tased him for allegedly resisting. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber reviews the police bodycam and lawsuit with Bruce’s attorney David Fiol.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve lost loved ones, your home, business or property because of the Los Angeles Wildfires, you can visit https://forthepeople.com/lcfire. You may be entitled to significant compensation. HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller

that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. What have you taken? Hey, hold on, let him put this around his legs. Nothing, bro. You took something. That is not normal behavior. Police in Northern California responded to a call about a driver who just got to off the side of the road was possibly having some sort of medical emergency. And despite an apparent report indicating that the man might be in the middle of a crisis,

body camera video appears to show officers tasing him multiple times and dragging him from the car. Now he's filing a lawsuit against the city and the officers, and we have on his attorney to discuss this case. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, wait to hear about this one. So we have Jack Bruce. He was 21 years old in April of last year, reportedly was heading home after a visit with his grandmother when his attorneys say he had his first ever seizure, okay? Now, other drivers out on the road with him in Hercules, California, that's where this

all went down, told 911 dispatchers and police on scene that they saw his car slow to a crawl, move off the road, eventually rolling down a short. embankment and stopping at some trees. Now, Bruce appeared on hurt from the actual accident. The airbags in his car didn't appear to a deploy or anything like that. But the first officers on the scene noted that he did appear to be experiencing some sort of distress. I want you to take a look at some of the body camera video from the Hercules police officers. Oh my God. I don't know for me. Hey, sir. Hey, sir. You okay?

Are you okay? Can you breathe? What's going on right now? Talk to me boss. What's going on right now? Can you hear me? 227. Driver is 1045 B conscious breathing A for a monstroke. You okay? Stay with me buddy. You know your name? And 227. Better 20 is going to be right in front of country run directly in front in the ditch. My patrol vehicle is on RVR. on RVR if you could update fire you okay what's your name boss can you breathe

can you breathe can you breathe can you breathe can you hear me here sweet squeeze my hand if you can hear me squeeze my hand if you can hear me boss squeeze my hand any firm for fire I don't know where they're gonna park the rig yet though. Can you hear me, boss? Hey, Goldstein. You want to wait for fire to try to get him out? Yeah, don't know. He's having a seizure. Just let him, just let him be. Okay. He is breathing, though. If he's fine, just let him beat. Okay. Do you have an idea on you, boss? You got it? Okay. Did you ingest any drugs or anything? And a fellow officer seems to note that it appears Bruce might be having seizure and says for the officer in the back seat of the car to leave him be, which seems

he does for a limited period of time. He's conscious breathing. Looks like he's having a seizure. Doesn't smell like alcohol or anything like that. I don't see any drugs. Hey, buddy. What's going on? What's going on?

What are you talking about? You're in an accident. You're all right. Circulous PD, you're good, man. You're good. You're good. You're good. You're right.

I'm good. Let's get you out of the car, man. Let's get you checked out. Why? You're in a ditch run out, dude. Your car's in a ditch. Okay. Let me go.

You can't drive, dude. Why? You have any medical issues? No. Have you ever had a seizure? No. You have diabetes? No.

Any drugs or alcohol today? No. No? You're pretty sweaty, my buddy. Yeah. Yeah, you're ready. So, right. Let's get you out.

We're going to walk up this hill. No, no, no. not you're not driving anywhere bro your car is in a ditch that's a police officer we got to get you out stop trying to grab your seat bow dude we got to get you out listen to this guy please stop no we're gonna go up the hill you keep pulling your seat but i'm gonna rip your seatbelt so listen to this firefighter hey everybody this is another law and crime legal alert the los angeles wildfires are still making an impact it is estimated that these wildfires cause more than 250 billion dollars worth of damage the loss of life is just immeasurable

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L.C. Fire, and you may be entitled to significant compensation. When a firefighter asks Bruce to get out of the car and Bruce is resistant, there is a lot of yelling, tugging, and yanking. All right, dude. Listen to this officer. Wake up. Let's go. Come on.

Let's help out. What are he doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? Let's go. Get out of the car. Get out of the car, dude. Come on.

Come on. Let's go. Stop resisting, bro. Let's go. You're going to get tased. We want to help you, but do not fight us. You will get ripped out of this car. We're not playing you.

Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out, then. You're about to get tased, dude. You're about to get out. You're about to get out. So it appears that Bruce has tapped lightly with that stun gun at first, appears bewildered

at the insistence of the officers, and then the use of the taser. So according to a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California for the first time in his life, Bruce had suffered a, quote, tonic clonic. This is previously known as a grand mal brain seizure. He was reportedly still in a state of recovery when the officer allegedly tased him, causing him to continue jerking, writhing on the ground, which the officers appeared to interpret as a form of resistance. So multiple officers, they then appear to pile on top of Bruce, with one appearing to put

his knee against the back of Bruce's neck for several seconds at one point. And once he's handcuffed, the officers drag him up the embankment to a gurney as you can hear him moaning. He ended up with several cuts and his shirt was covered in blood. He wasn't talking to me the whole time. He was just breathing. He kept moving and said like back and forth. When fire went down there, he answered their questions, but he was like almost like a state of shock. He was like, where am I? He tried to put in the car and drive.

I'm like, dude, you're in a bitch. And that's when he started like, get the shit off. He was like pushing off. That's when he pushed him off. And I was like, just back up like Goldstein grab him. But he's kind of like in and out. Yeah. He wasn't combative at first.

But as soon as I did, we're getting you out of the car and Goldstein grabbed him, immediately start throwing hands. Now this part's interesting because in their conversations amongst themselves, the officers seem to insist that Bruce must have been on some kind of drug to react the way that he did. But after searching his car, they come up empty-handed. Dude, there's nothing. There's no pipes. There's no little baggies. He's high on something.

He's high as fuck on something. I just don't know what it is. Unless he tossed something back here. Because the only thing he has in the front is like stizzies. But I ain't ever seen anybody. drag like that off weed. So in the end, Bruce was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed as having recently suffered that tonic, clonic seizure. Now, despite that, the lawsuit that we're talking about, the lawsuit that these officers are facing, the lawsuit says that the police department still

wrote up a report that made it seem like Bruce may have been driving under the influence. Actually, I want you to take a look at that lawsuit because Bruce is suing the city of Hercules and three officers directly involved in his arrest. We have Angel Garcia, Michael. Thompson and Joshua Goldstein. So according to the filing, quote, the defendants were trained and knew that the last thing an officer should do when dealing with a seizure victim is restrain him because seizure victims often react instinctively to physical contact. Ignoring this training, they repeatedly poked, prodig, shook, and yelled at plaintiff, ordering him to leave his car. When that did not work because plaintiff had not yet recovered the ability to

understand what was happening around him, they escalated and began to forcefully extract him from the car. Still suffering from his seizure and confused as to what was happening, plaintiff instinctively resisted their efforts. This resulted in Thompson unleashing a string of profanities a plaintiff that even his normally protective supervisors found to be unprofessional. Unfazed and unmoved by the folly and error of their own behavior, the officers doubled down and forcefully pulled on, punched, knead, and tased plaintiff, leaving him bloodied by multiple cuts and contusions. So to back up the claim that these officers should, should reasonably have known what to do in this situation and what was going on.

The lawsuit focuses on the California Commission on Police Officers Standards and Training. It's also called Post. And it says this is what you have to do. Quote, Post expects police officers in the state to recognize that citizens they encounter may be suffering the effects of a brain seizure and act accordingly. Post publishes workbooks that outline the curriculum for the basic training that every police officer receives before he or she can work in the state. Since at least 2017, post-learning domain, volume 34,

contains a section on seizures which states in part, a seizure is the result of a surge of energy through the brain. Instead of discharging electrical energy in a controlled manner, the brain cells continue firing, causing massive involuntary contractions of muscles and possible unconsciousness. If only part of the brain is affected, it may cloud awareness, block normal communication,

and produce a variety of undirected, unorganized movements. The filing continues in accord with this guidance for medical authorities. The Post Workbook commands officers who encounter seizure victims do not restrain them. Similarly, the Post Workbook warns officers that agitated behavior during an episode should not be perceived as deliberate hostility or resistance to the officer. So now let's take a look at how the lawsuit corresponds with the body cam footer, that was released by Hercules police. So according to the suit, the officers and the firefighter, quote, repeatedly directed

plaintiff to leave the car and walk up the hill, although neither of them discussed why that was immediately necessary or why plaintiff could not be evaluated where he sat. This, despite the fact that at least one of the officers admits the driver might be having a seizure and relaying that information to the firefighter as he walks up. So going back to the complaint, it reads, Garcia drives stunned plaintiff. with his taser, sending a high current through the body of a young man who had just suffered a medical condition caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Garcia then screamed, get out of the car. In BWC, that's body-worn camera, videos recorded after plaintiff was

strapped to a gurney, Thompson admitted that during the struggle, he punched plaintiff in the face twice. Thompson claimed it was because plaintiff kicked him, but no such kick is evident in the BWC videos. And the lawsuit also talks about the tests that were done at the hospital to determine if Bruce had anything in his system, right? Was he under the influence? Quote, tests of plaintiff's blood and urine collected shortly after the incident revealed no alcohol or drugs in his system other than trace amounts of THC and a sedative administered to him in the ambulance after the incident with defendants. So Bruce is suing under 10 causes of action. And to talk about them, to

talk about this case. I want to bring on right now. David Fiel, he is the attorney who filed this lawsuit on Bruce's behalf. He's representing him. Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you taking the time. I just want to start off by saying this is such a horrible, horrible experience for your client. How is he doing right now, almost what, a year later? He's getting along. He's dealing with two things. He's dealing with a new epilepsy diagnosis and working to get the right level of drugs in his system so that he doesn't have recurrent seizures. Right now, they're not there. He's unable to drive, unable to work as a result. So it's an uphill climb. And for a good part of that last year, he was wondering whether he was going to be

criminally charged. So it's been a double whammy for him. What did he think he was going to be criminally charged for? Well, the officers in their typical cover-up fashion, decided to charge him with DUI to give themselves an excuse for having done what they did to him and they charged him with interfering with the work of a police officer which really is boggles the line frankly but those charges that they were they were dropped right the DA wasn't interested in pursuing them talk to me about let's go through this case let's go through this the causes of action under this complaint so the first two seems pretty self-experienced We have unlawful arrest and unreasonable use of force, the claim being that there was no reason to arrest Bruce, that the amount of force used was totally uncoved for it was inappropriate.

Expand upon that for us what you're going to be alleging and what you hope to prove. In those first two causes of action, of course, he was arrested. He was held without any basis. There was no warrant for his arrest. So they sold basis for the arrest, according to the officers, was that. They suspected he was driving under the influence. And as you probably know, Mr. Bruce's own father was a police officer for more than 20 years and is now an investigator for the DA's office. And just having a single vehicle accident isn't proof that you were driving under the influence, especially when the witnesses told the police that it appeared he was having a seizure.

But nevertheless, they went with their hunch. And that's just not constitutionally correct or morally correct. Well, let's expand upon what the counter argument could be, right? The counter argument would be they see this crash, they see arguably erratic actions. You could say they were acting under suspicion that he was under the influence. How could they know exactly he was having a seizure? Sure, people said it, but, you know, they might be wrong. So how would you counter those arguments that in the heat of that moment,

they were acting under the best circumstances they knew. Well, it was their job to look for additional evidence to confirm their suspicions. And they did that. The first officer that got there, went through the car. You can see him in the video poking through his possessions, looking at whether there might be any evidence of use of drugs. And he was smelling to see if there was the smell of alcohol in the car. And you can hear him saying, I don't smell alcohol.

I don't see any evidence of drugs. So without that confirmation, you need to start taking a step back and thinking, all right, these witnesses were probably right. This guy had a seizure. And let's talk about that because of the third cause of action, really interesting. It's violation of the Americans with Disabilities Acts, also known as the ADA. And that act was passed more than 30 years ago to protect people living with disabilities from being discriminated against.

Talk to us about this one and how this one might trigger in this case. Well, for a number of years, there were questions in the courts. Does this apply to police officers? And the consensus has grown that, yes, it should. When you have police officers encountering someone with a likely medical condition that makes it unable for them to do the things the officers are asking them to do, they are, like any other government officer, as well as private businesses, obliged to accommodate their disabilities.

And here, the accommodation that we said should have been afforded is very simple. Give him 10 minutes to recover from the seizure, and then he'll be able to cooperate with you, understand what you're saying, and comply with the officers' directions, not that he wouldn't have gotten out of the car on his own power after he realized what was happening to him. So this is a very straightforward failure to accommodate case on the police officers. Does it, how much of that level of knowledge?

So I agree with you. You could say there's evidence to suggest they should have known that there was a seizure going on, but it's different than, let's say, having a disability where someone is in a wheelchair or someone is blind and there's clear visible indicators to that. Do you think there's a difficulty here of trying to prove that these officers knew there was a disability that they had to accommodate? Well, in this particular case, they admitted, they stated on. the video that it appeared he was having a seizure but taking a step back in california and probably

in most every state officers in the first year of training are shown the signs of an epileptic seizure and trained to respond to that number one by not trying to restrain the person and number two by being counseled not to mistake the sometimes aggressive conduct of an epileptic with criminal intent so these officers had that training and you can hear in the body worn camera videos one of those officers saying right off the bat he's having a seizure leave him be if he's not hurt leave him be and why they didn't continue to do that boggles the mind frankly this lawsuit uh also lodgers complaints of unlawful detention excessive force but it also it says as violent acts and false police reports.

So I want to start with the violence. You have claimed that this is what happened here to your client is a violation of the Ralph Act. What is the Ralph Act and how does it apply here? There are two civil rights acts in California that parallel but aren't exactly identical to the federal civil rights statutes. The Ralph Act is one of those.

It essentially is an anti-discrimination act. It's broad. It applies to racial discrimination. and a whole bunch of other discrimination backgrounds, including disability discrimination. California has expanded that act to go into another realm, which is you were just referring to false statements and police reports.

It was in response, actually, to the Central Park, birdwatching Karen case. I pardon the use of that term. I know a lot of people don't like it, But we all remember the incidents in whether the birdwatcher, who was African-American, was trying to peacefully do his hobby and was encountered a woman with a loose dog, which violates the Central Park regulations. And she called the police and falsely told the police that he was threatening her.

Well, New York and now California have responded with laws that said that a false report to a law enforcement agency is, not immunized from lawsuits. And in this case, we're alleging that the police officers made a false report to another law enforcement agency, the district attorney, in order to cover up their misconduct. So that fits into the Ralph Act claim that you were just referring to. So there's two things, right? The Ralph Act, right? You have to be a person has a right to be free from violence, right, or threats of violence on account of their disabilities. And two, this this other claim, I think, is really interesting where there's the allegation that these officers omitted certain details, allegedly lied in the reports. What did they say in the

reports? What exactly that you say is inaccurate? The thing that jumps out the most is that they claimed that Mr. Jack was violent and contentious from the moment they got there. And we can all see in these videos that when they arrived, he was asleep. And they kept jostling him and trying to rouse him, he kept falling back asleep. This was a man who was not aggressive, did not initiate any sort of violent conduct with these officers. So that's the number one concern that we have about their reports. And they also admitted a lot of information about, frankly, the lack of evidence of any drug use. So between those two, it would seem like a concerted effort to put him up on charges that there really was no basis for it.

And that's why you're suing also for defamation, right? Exactly. So, by the way, if you're dealing with police officers, which standard is it? Is it you have to prove actual malice or is it a lower standard negligence? Well, we have a mix of negligence and constitutional claims. California doesn't have the same sort of malice or deliberate indifference. standard that you have in the federal civil rights laws. But it does require some element of knowledge that what they're doing is wrong. And we think we meet that standard here.

What's the current status of this case? Have you heard a legal response, a public response from the defendants in any way, the city? Talk to us about where the case currently stands. The city hasn't responded in a formal sense. We're in the process of serving them with the They have put out a press release that essentially claim that they're unable to provide further information through the pending litigation. They've also indicated that there's a pending investigation. We're not aware of that. Their opportunity to investigate and address this conduct was many months ago when the family filed a citizen complaint. And although no written response was provided to them, the city was orally

advised that the department determined that all of the officers conduct here was within proper procedures and that there was nothing wrong about it and i think most people that look at these videos disagree i read that one of the officers was actually promoted after this event is that true and if so what does that tell you um just based on the city's own websites uh mr thompson or Officer Thompson apparently was promoted to corporal. And does that signify to you that they didn't believe that they're ready to defend him, defend the officer's actions, that they don't believe they did anything wrong? That's the typical response is to deny all wrongdoing, unfortunately.

Do you think this is a case that could possibly end in a settlement? Is that something your client would be open to? We always are open and recommend to our clients that they discuss settlement. And most of the time, that's how these cases are resolved. Sometimes they're not. There's a certain dynamic in government in California and probably elsewhere, where it's hard for public officials to settle cases because that requires them to admit they did wrong.

And they'd rather be forced to pay a judgment than to voluntarily admit wrong. In other words, no one's apologized to your client about what happened. I'm not aware of any. And that would be something that you'd be looking for as well if there was some sort of agreement, not just a monetary compensation, but some sort of apology to your client. That's up to my clients. You know, we are agents of our clients and we really haven't had that discussion yet. I think we're still waiting to see how the police responds to this complaint.

Well, look, it's a really distressing story. It's a very interesting legal case, and I appreciate you coming on. Please send our best to your client. Hope he's, you know, I understand he's, like you said, he's has some medical challenges along the way, but we're wishing him the best. David Field, thank you so much for taking the time. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you. All right, everybody.

That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.