Haddad & Sherwin LLP

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Prison Officials ignored warnings before an inmate transfer that led to a virus outbreak. Michael Haddad comments, "It is tragic and unacceptable that some prison bureaucrats treated them as less than human. Read full article: https://www.latimes.com//california-prisons-ignored-warnin

Law enforcement shootings of unarmed men of color are an epidemic in this country. And today, we address yet another one. https://haddadandsherwin.com//napa-county-cop-shoots-and-/

Few law firms have more success winning California wrongful death cases caused by police, jails, or civil rights violations. Read more about our areas of service here: https://haddadandsherwin.com/areas-of-practice

Vallejo agrees to pay Carl Edwards $750,000 for brutal beating by Police Officers. The civil rights lawsuit stemmed from a video-recorded incident on July 30, 2017, where officers severely beat, choked, and injured Carl Edwards while he was peacefully fixing a fence on the front porch of his own house. Read the full press release here: http://www.globenewswire.com//Vallejo-Agrees-to-Pay-Carl-E

San Francisco DA, Chesa Boudin, quietly dismissed the criminal case against the Alameda County Sheriff's deputies who tortured our client. https://haddadandsherwin.com//da-drops-san-francisco-poli/

The city of Pittsburg, California, has agreed to pay $7.3 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of a man who was killed after an officer placed him in a carotid hold for 50 seconds, using a controversial technique that has since been widely banned by law enforcement agencies, in the wake of the George Floyd killing. I was 14 when my Dad was killed. I was getting older and needed a father figure. The police should be the people you go to when you feel unsafe, Martinez’s son, Humbert Martinez Jr., said in a written statement released by his attorney. It was unreal that they treated my dad like that. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit settlement is one of the largest if not the highest ever paid to settle a police killing lawsuit in California history. It’s also part of a growing trend of huge payouts in police misconduct suits.

Until we have a major change of point of view in the city attorney’s office and the mayor’s office and the City Council, who continue to enable this lawless Police Department, I don’t think we’re going to see a change, Haddad said. From what I’ve seen, the corruption and the enabling of unconstitutional conduct goes throughout the command staff to the very top. Without a clean sweep of that, it’s hard for me to imagine real change happening.

A civil case has been settled against the city of Vallejo for $5.7 million over the fatal police shooting of Ronell Foster in 2018, city officials announced Friday. Later, McMahon admitted that hitting Foster with the flashlight was using deadly force, and at least one blow was to Foster’s head, Haddad said. City officials said they are not admitting any liability for the killing, even though they have decided to settle the case.... https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com//vallejo-settles-suit-f/

Policies written by a company called Lexipol, allows officers to shoot at moving vehicles in some circumstances, a practice that the Police Executive Research Forum recommends against because it may injure or kill civilians and officers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Every single case, (they) argue that the officer just followed his policies and training, says Michael Haddad, who has faced off against Lexipol's lawyers in several police misconduct lawsuits. Read the full story in MotherJones.

A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed the family of a Pittsburg man to sue the city and its police over a fatal struggle in which an officer choked the man and two officers knelt on his back until he lost consciousness.

The family of Gerald Johnson, a 55-year-old Fresno man shot and killed by police in March, has filed a wrongful death claim against the City of Fresno. The claim, filed on Monday, alleges police used excessive force when trying to convince Johnson to get out of a broken-down car in his mother’s yard on March 22. This shooting violated the established legal standards as well as California’s new deadly force law, limiting officers’ use of deadly force.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco is considering whether six Pittsburg police officers can be held liable for killing a man during a violent arrest in 2016. At the center of the officers’ appeal is a legal doctrine called qualified immunity that broadly shields public officials and police from liability. I think about what happened to Eric Garner and George Floyd and many others, Haddad said to the 9th Circuit justices in closing. And for each of them, as polic...e officers beat and crushed the breath from them, their last words were, ‘I can’t breathe.’ Now some of those very officers are here, literally asking for you to give them some breathing room. https://www.haddadandsherwin.com//qualified-immunity-for-/

Derek Chauvin, the officer filmed pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck while he begged for his life, was charged with second-degree murder. The Floyd case is unusual because charges were filed, Haddad said, but he added that the initial complaint suggests a larger truth about the likelihood of bringing successful charges in such cases. It’s extremely rare for any officers to ever get charged, Haddad said. The only time it seems to happen is when there is video and they’re c...aught red-handed. https://www.haddadandsherwin.com//start-to-floyd-case-hin/ See more

Buffalo, New York, police recently shoved Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old man who was protesting the murder of George Floyd, knocking Mr. Gugino to the ground and causing a head injury that immediately began to bleed and required hospitalization. Police officers are human, and some of them break the law, and as we all are seeing, some of them are even murderers. And many of them devote themselves to the Code of Silence and cover-up for the lawbreakers and murderers among them. When police departments and courts do not hold those officers accountable, they send a message to all officers that breaking the law, including the highest law in the land the United States Constitution is okay. It’s not okay, and we all have a responsibility to make that clear. https://haddadandsherwin.com//the-lawlessness-of-law-enfo/

In response to community uprising over Minneapolis police officers’ murder of George Floyd by restraint asphyxia, Donald Trump tweeted when the looting starts, the shooting starts. One response is needed. To quote former President Barack Obama, Vote. CIVIL RIGHTS... https://haddadandsherwin.com//president-promotes-unconsti/

The only people who hold law enforcement accountable when they violate the constitution and kill people like George Floyd are the family members of the victims with their civil rights attorneys. These officers must be held accountable not only in the criminal courts, but in civil court as well. https://www.haddadandsherwin.com//please-please-i-cant-br/

"It seems Vacaville police have not learned their lesson" https://www.haddadandsherwin.com//vacaville-police-here-w/

"This case is a sad example of law enforcement's overly aggressive tactics leading to the unnecessary death of a child," said Michael Haddad, Ana Rodas' attorney https://www.thecalifornian.com//salinas-deadly/3498273002/

Haddad & Sherwin continues to bring justice to combat the use of excessive force by officers in the city of Vallejo. https://www.mercurynews.com//judge-orders-city-of-vallejo/