Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Trial Comes to Fresno

Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Trial Comes to Fresno
By Mike Rhodes

Why was Sammy Galvan shot to death by Modesto police? The case has led to demonstrations against police brutality and numerous newspaper stories in the Modesto Bee, and now a wrongful death lawsuit will be heard in the federal courtroom in Fresno. The jury trial is expected to begin on March 11.

What both the Modesto Police Department and the Galvan family agree on was that Sammy was shot and killed by police officers in the early morning hours of August 24, 2004. According to the complaint filed in court by the Galvan family, Sammy and his girlfriend Yesenia had been arguing. Susan Galvan, Sammy’s mother, called 911 because she wanted Yesenia to stop yelling and banging on the door. Sammy lived in a cottage behind the Galvan residence.

When the police arrived, Sammy’s father, Ramon Galvan, unlocked the gate to the cottage. Sammy and Yesenia were by that time in the cottage and everything was quiet. Ramon began to lead the officers to the cottage but was prevented from getting to the door. Ramon then left the back yard to retrieve his dogs, and that is when he heard the gunshots. He yelled at the officers, asking them what was happening, and saw Yesenia being removed from the cottage.

The complaint filed in federal court describes what happened inside the cottage:

When the officers appeared at the cottage door to Sammy’s cottage, Yesenia had been inside for a long period of time. The yelling had stopped. Seated on the floor at the foot of the bed, Yesenia saw two police in the doorway next to each other. She stood up and approached them. Each had flashlights shining, which illuminated the otherwise dark room. As she approached to within about two feet of the officers, she saw their guns pointed. Then she looked around; Sammy stood up with a knife in his hand. Sammy was far away from both Yesenia and the officers. He stood between the bed and a wall. A dresser with a television on it, along the wall past the foot of the bed, separated Yesenia and the officers from Sammy. Yesenia heard "put it down". About the same time, Yesenia also said to Sammy "put it down," as she lowered herself toward the floor. She was going to kneel down. The officers fired immediately. Bullets flew near her head.

Sammy never moved beyond the bed. He never had a chance to comply with the officers’ command. He fell back. He did not move. His face had an expression of shock. Yesenia saw Sammy on the floor. The officers immediately grabbed her and forcibly put her out of the room.

At no time while the police were on the scene at Sammy’s cottage described above, was Sammy disorderly, or a threat to the safety of himself or that of others. He did not commit any criminal offense.

In the moments after the shooting, as Ramon was standing in the front yard with his dogs, he was told by arriving officers to put his hands behind his back. As he complied with the officer, he said that he had done nothing wrong. Ramon was pushed to the ground and handcuffed. The complaint describes the scene:

An officer yelled "I got him! I got him!" to the others, some of whom giggled and laughed. Officers grabbed Ramon by his hands, cuffed now behind his back, and pulled up. His shoulder and arm were injured, and he suffered immediate, sharp pain. An officer placed Ramon in a police car, where he waited for an indeterminate time. While there he saw an ambulance come and take away the body of his son, Sammy.

Ramon, now with his arm broken in three places, was taken to the emergency room of a local hospital where he was interrogated by the police. The lawsuit that has been filed in the federal court in Fresno will also address the issue of the injuries Ramon sustained the night his son was killed. The case was moved to Fresno in an attempt to get a fair trial.

The police officers involved in the shooting of Sammy are expected to say that they believed their lives were in danger. The knife in Sammy’s hand could have been there because the startled young man grabbed something to protect himself and his girlfriend from the intruders breaking into his house in the middle of the night. That is what the court will decide: whether or not this was a wrongful death.

There have been other police shootings in Modesto in recent years. In an incident that happened on September 13, 2000, an officer with the special weapons and tactics team shot and killed 11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda. This happened during a drug raid at the boy's home. An investigation found that the shooting was an accident and the Sepulveda family was paid $2.55 million by the city and another $450,000 by the federal government for its role in the shooting. According to Modesto Anarcho, nine people were fatally shot by the police in Modesto between 2000 and late 2006.

According to organizers of the October 22 Stop Police Brutality demonstration in Fresno, more than 44 people have been killed by this city’s police since 1997. When asked if any of these cases resulted in a wrongful death judgment by the courts, Ellie Bluestein, who has worked for years to establish an Independent Police Auditor in Fresno, said, "I've never seen a police shooting declared a wrongful death, but then I've only lived here since 1964." In one case four young Fresnans allegedly stole beer from a market in southeast Fresno. They drove a short distance away, and then their van was pulled over by the police. All but one of them surrendered, stepping out of the vehicle. Julian Celaya got into the driver's seat and tried to drive away, but he was shot to death in a wall of gunfire; witnesses say 30 to 40 shots were fired. A young man 25 years of age accused of stealing two 12-packs of beer was shot to death, and the police were found to have used justifiable force in the situation.

The death of Everardo Torres, who had his life stolen on the night of October 27, 2002, is another tragedy. Torres was arrested, handcuffed, and put into the back of a Madera police car. A short time later, police officer Marcy Noriega came over to the car, pulled her service revolver, and shot him to death. Noriega says it was all a big mistake, she thought she was using her Taser gun. Torres’s family says Everardo was murdered by the police, and they want justice.

The Sammy Galvan case will be watched closely by those concerned with justice and police accountability. For more information about police accountability issues in the Fresno and Modesto area, contact:

Central California Criminal Justice Committee
Post Office Box 4555
Fresno, CA 93744
(559) 229-9807
http://cccjc.org/home/

Fresno Copwatch
453 N. Fresno Street
Fresno, CA 93701
Ph. (559) 498-6033
IWAPGH@aol.com

Modesto Anarcho
www.geocities.com/anarcho209
www.myspace.com/modanarcho
PO Box 3027
Modesto, CA 95353