Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Lawsuit Dismissed

Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Lawsuit Dismissed
What Went Wrong?
By Mike Rhodes

On March 14 a Federal jury delivered their verdict in the Sammy Galvan wrongful death lawsuit. The jurors unanimously agreed to dismiss the lawsuit, agreeing with the defense that the officers who shot and killed Sammy Galvan, were justified and did so because they believed their lives were in danger. The assault and battery charges against the Modesto Police Department, for their treatment of Sammy’s father, were also dismissed.

In his final arguments, Modesto Deputy City Attorney James Wilson told the jury his version of what happened at the Galvan home on August 22, 2004. Wilson said that police work “routinely involves stupefying hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” He used that framework to set the scene of a domestic disturbance call gone horribly wrong. Wilson said that when the police were called by Susan Galvan, Sammy’s mother, officers Lyndon Yates and Mirl Morse were dispatched to the scene.

According to Wilson, when officers Yates and Morse arrived at the backyard cottage that Sammy lived in, they shined their flashlights through the open front door. They saw Sammy laying on his bed (it was 1 AM in the morning) and when the lights hit him he stood up. The officers said he had a knife in each hand and began to move towards them in an aggressive manner. Wilson said Sammy was told to “drop the knife” and seconds later officers Yates and Morse fired eight rounds. Four out of eight 45 caliber hollow point bullets hit and killed Sammy Galvan. Hollow point bullets, if used by the military in a time of war, would be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Attorneys for the Galvan family argued that things did not happen as the defense claimed. Walter Riley, in his closing statement, said the shooting was “not a lawful use of force.” Riley argued that Sammy Galvan did not present an immediate threat to the officers and they should have used less than lethal force to deal with the situation.

The defense (City of Modesto) claimed that Sammy Galvan was about to throw one of the two knives they said he held. An expert witness, brought in by the Galvan family’s attorneys, testified that Sammy could not have been throwing a knife. This testimony was based on the autopsy report which showed where he was shot and the trajectory of the bullets in his body. Wilson countered that “all they (police officers) had to do is to reasonably believe that this deadly threat is about to come to fruition, to act as a police officer.”

Wilson also presented a new theory during his closing argument that the officers were acting to prevent a “hostage situation” from occurring. He claimed that Yesenia Perez, Sammy’s girlfriend, was in the room and they were afraid that Sammy might take her hostage. There had been no evidence in the trial to suggest such a scenario.

In his final arguments Riley discredited officer Yates testimony that he saw Sammy move his left leg back and assume a fighting stance by pointing out that Yates could not see Sammy’s feet because there was a table and TV in front of him. Riley said that even if, as the defense argued, that Sammy said “Shoot me Mother Fucker, Shoot Me Mother Fucker” that you can’t kill someone because they say that. Yesenia Perez, who was in the room at the time, testified that Sammy never said anything. Is it possible that Sammy was awakened in the middle of the night, thinking someone was breaking into his house, and he grabbed a knife for self protection? The jury didn’t think so.

Riley also argued that the crime scene had been disturbed and it was impossible to determine where things ended up after the shooting. A number of people I talked to believed the police planted the knives to justify the shooting. Wilson said that was not true and that Sammy took the knives from the kitchen and was laying with a knife in each hand, waiting for the officers to arrive. But, Wilson also admitted that the crime scene had been disturbed. “These things happen,” he said.

The only person Wilson called for the defense was officer Yates who talked about the knives he said were in Sammy’s hands. Yates said Sammy had a knife with an 8 inch blade and a black handle in his right hand and a brown handled knife with an 8 inch blade in his left. Officer Yates saw this detail in a poorly lit room, within seconds, when he thought his life was in danger, and in spite of the fact that the handles (if he was holding them) were covered by Sammy’s hands. Yates in previous testimony claimed Sammy was 5 feet away from him when he was shot. However, unless officer Yates had entered the cottage without a search warrant, he had to be at least 10 feet from Sammy when he shot him to death. How could Yates have been so certain about the color of the knife handles, yet so wrong about his distance from Sammy? Several people I spoke with said they thought he was lying.

Walter Riley asked Yates why he had refused to give a statement on the shooting to either the Modesto Police Internal Affairs Department or to Detective Blake, who was investigating the shooting for the Modesto PD. Yates said he refused to cooperate in the investigation on the advise of his legal counsel. He said “it was under advisement by my attorney not to give a statement.”

The jury rejected the evidence provided by the Galvan legal team and unanimously returned a verdict in favor of the city. Why did that happen and what does it mean for future police accountability cases in the Central Valley?

Several observers of the trial were pessimistic about the outcome of the trial. They said that the jury pool in the Federal Court system (particularly in Fresno) is very conservative. At least 15 out of the 20-25 people in the jury pool had law enforcement connections - family members were police officers, they worked in one of the many valley prisons, etc. There was not one black person in the jury pool. Furthermore, they observed, that it is very difficult to get a jury to believe a poor Latino family (like the Galvan’s) and not believe police officers who have extensive training in how to testify in a courtroom.

According to Aggie Rose-Chavez, another member of the Galvan family’s legal team, the verdict will not be appealed. In fact, Rose-Chavez says she expects attorneys for the defense to get a legal order to force the Galvan family to pay for all the City of Modesto’s legal expenses in this case. If that happens, it will certainly send a message to poor families to think twice before you stand up for your constitutional rights.


For more information, see:

Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Trial Comes to Fresno
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/22/18474152.php

Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Lawsuit Gets Under Way in Fresno (Day 1) http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/03/10/18484955.php

Day 2 in the Sammy Galvan Wrongful Death Trial
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/03/11/18485128.php