San Leandro has agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit that accused the city’s police officers of brutally beating Sorrell Shiflett, a mentally disabled man, in 2019. The incident resulted in Shiflett suffering from severe brain bleeding and subsequent strokes. The settlement comes nearly five years after the incident occurred, shedding light on the troubled history of the officers involved.
According to the lawsuit, Shiflett, 37, was walking with his cousin through a neighborhood in search of a friend’s house when he was tased and bludgeoned by San Leandro police officers Ismael Navarro and Anthony Pantoja. This marked at least the sixth time that either officer had been named in a lawsuit alleging violent behavior while working for various police departments across the East Bay.
Civil rights attorney Adante Pointer, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Shiflett, emphasized that this case exemplifies “over-aggressive policing and a failure to accommodate a person’s disability.” He criticized the officers for resorting to force instead of relying on their training and skills. It remains unclear whether Navarro or Pantoja are still employed by the San Leandro Police Department, as no official comment has been provided by the city manager’s office or the police department.
The incident occurred on October 6, 2019, after a call was made to the San Leandro police reporting “suspicious” men walking on Maria Drive. Navarro and Pantoja quickly focused their attention on Shiflett, who was dressed as a character from the anime show Naruto, and his cousin. Shiflett’s cousin informed the officers about his traumatic brain injury, which left him with a child-like demeanor due to Broca’s aphasia, a condition that impairs communication and comprehension.
The encounter took a violent turn when Shiflett attempted to run home, seemingly in an effort to have his father explain his condition to the officers. The officers pursued him, with Pantoja using his baton to strike Shiflett and Navarro deploying a taser. The lawsuit alleges that Shiflett was pinned to the ground, with his head forcefully pushed into the cement, before Pantoja resumed beating him with the baton. Following the incident, another officer dropped Shiflett off at a hospital, potentially in an attempt to conceal the officers’ involvement in the beating.
The lawsuit further claims that Pantoja failed to activate his body camera until after the beating had concluded, while Navarro’s camera remained off throughout the incident, both in violation of department policy. Additionally, the San Leandro Police Department allegedly neglected to conduct an internal affairs investigation into the matter, as highlighted by Pointer’s firm in a press release announcing the settlement.
Shiflett continues to suffer from the consequences of the incident, with his traumatic brain injury exacerbated by the beating. Pointer described the incident as a recurring nightmare for Shiflett, who struggles to comprehend why the police subjected him to such violence.
This settlement adds to a growing list of payouts involving Navarro and Pantoja. Navarro was previously involved in a 2014 incident where Bay Area Rapid Transit reached a settlement with a man who was tasered. Both officers were also named in another lawsuit alleging wrongful tasing and baton use in 2018, while they were employed by the San Leandro Police Department. The department has reached settlements in two other cases involving Pantoja in 2018, and he is currently facing an ongoing lawsuit over the fatal shooting of Vasquinho Bettencourt in August 2020.
