Eight months earlier than fatally taking pictures a girl in entrance of her 9-year-old daughter, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Ty Shelton allegedly body-slammed a faculty janitor who was taking out the trash, in response to a brand new lawsuit.
Filed on behalf of the Palmdale Faculty District, the March 29 swimsuit targets each Shelton and the Sheriff’s Division in Los Angeles Superior Court docket, saying the lawman ought to have seen that custodian Eric Rios clearly wasn’t fleeing and didn’t look something just like the suspect Shelton was chasing.
The deputy didn’t reply to a request for remark. In an emailed assertion Friday, the division mentioned it had not but formally acquired the declare however that it takes all makes use of of power significantly.
“The division performed an inner investigation into this incident, which was reviewed by the North Patrol Division Commander,” the assertion mentioned. “It was decided to be objectively affordable and inside coverage.”
In the meantime, Palmdale faculty Supt. Raul Maldonado mentioned the district had not been conscious of the lawsuit, and that it ought to have been filed on behalf of an insurance coverage firm, not on behalf of the district.
The legal professional who filed the swimsuit didn’t reply to The Occasions’ requests for remark. Maldonado mentioned the legal professional had been retained by the insurance coverage firm in search of to get better the price of the janitor’s staff’ compensation declare.
Maldonado didn’t provide any touch upon the violent incident on the heart of the case.
The incident began in early March final 12 months, after deputies based mostly in Lancaster responded to a name over what the Sheriff’s Division has described as “legal threats.” When the suspect fled his residence and bumped into a close-by faculty, deputies began chasing him. In line with the lawsuit, it was throughout that chase that Shelton noticed Eric Rios — a faculty janitor — as Rios was carrying a bag of trash.
“The suspected legal and Eric Rios weren’t comparable in look such {that a} affordable particular person below comparable circumstances as Ty Shelton shouldn’t have mistaken Eric Rios for the fleeing legal suspect,” the swimsuit says, although it doesn’t provide an outline of both man. “Deputy Shelton nonetheless charged towards Mr. Rios, who yelled out that he was not the suspect.”
Then, Shelton allegedly slammed Rios to the bottom in an act the lawsuit describes as “negligent” and “an train of extreme power.”
The Sheriff’s Division, nevertheless, mentioned Rios was sporting the identical clothes because the suspect and match the person’s bodily description, which led deputies to suppose he was the particular person they’d been chasing.
“A use of power occurred,” the division mentioned, “and it was shortly decided that the person was not the suspect.”
Afterward, the deputy tried to assist Rios and provided him medical assist, officers mentioned. It’s not clear whether or not the suspect was caught.
In line with the swimsuit, Rios sustained “substantial accidents,” main him to file a declare for staff’ compensation advantages. The swimsuit doesn’t specify how a lot these advantages got here out to, but additionally asks for cash to cowl the prices of litigation and any prejudgment curiosity.
That is a minimum of the third time Shelton’s use of power has come below scrutiny.
In 2020, he shot and killed a person whereas responding to a home violence name in Lancaster. Deputies mentioned 62-year-old Michael Thomas had tried to seize one in every of their weapons earlier than Shelton shot him. Thomas’ fiancee disputed that account, telling an area TV station that Thomas had refused to let deputies enter the home and was turning away from them when Shelton shot him.
“I heard Michael say, ‘I’ve a proper to not allow you to in my home,’” she advised the station on the time.
County information present prosecutors declined to file expenses towards Shelton in that case, although they acknowledged that “there could have been different affordable choices accessible” to him as a substitute of killing Thomas.
Three years later, the lethal encounter with a Lancaster mom additionally began with a home violence name. Niani Finlayson known as 911 for assist in December, saying her former boyfriend was strangling her and making an attempt to harm her daughter, in response to a discover of declare — the precursor to a lawsuit — that an legal professional for Finlayson’s household filed final 12 months.
In some unspecified time in the future earlier than deputies arrived, 9-year-old Xaisha Davis mentioned, she handed her mom a knife, in response to the discover.
“He was hurting my mom and me,” the woman later advised reporters at a information convention. “I didn’t have [any] selection however to get one thing sharp.”
In line with the declare, Finlayson was sitting on the ground inside her dwelling and “not threatening anybody” when deputies confirmed up and opened hearth from outdoors, taking pictures her 4 instances by a sliding glass door.
The division provided a unique account in a information launch posted on-line final 12 months. When deputies arrived at Finlayson’s condo, the discharge mentioned, they heard shouting inside, and a girl got here to the door with a big knife and mentioned she was “going to stab her boyfriend for pushing her daughter.”
The mom retreated inside, the discharge mentioned, heading towards the place her former boyfriend was sitting. Deputies adopted her, and “a deputy-involved taking pictures occurred.”
Lower than three weeks later, legal professional Bradley Gage filed the discover of declare on behalf of Finlayson’s household, signaling plans to sue the county and the Sheriff’s Division for $30 million. In a information convention on the time, Gage known as for the deputy to be fired, and Finlayson’s daughter known as for his prosecution.
The Sheriff’s Division has a troubled historical past within the Antelope Valley, the place a two-year federal investigation discovered in 2013 that deputies had a sample of utilizing unreasonable power, harassing and intimidating folks and making illegal stops of Black and Latino residents.
Afterward, the county entered right into a sweeping settlement settlement that outlined a sequence of reforms to be overseen by screens. Since then, these screens have criticized the division for not following by shortly sufficient on making a few of the required modifications.
