March 28, 2019
LAWT News Service
Concluding a four day trial, on Friday, March 23, 2019, a United States District Court for the Central District of California jury awarded $9,800,000 to the family of a mentally ill Long Beach woman who suffered fatal injuries on January 15, 2017, as a result of being shot seven times by two Long Beach police officers. The jury of six women and two men unanimously found that the shooting officers acted with “malice and oppression,” supporting a finding of punitive damages against the officers, and additionally found that the shooting incident “shocked the conscience,” which allowed the parents of the deceased woman to recover damages for the loss of their familial relationship with their daughter. This global award represents the largest jury verdict that has ever been awarded by a jury against the City of Long Beach arising out of a police shooting, and the second largest verdict ever handed down by a jury in the Central District of California in a police shooting case. Plaintiffs were represented at trial and in the case by attorney Rodney Diggs of Ivie, McNeill, & Wyatt and The Cochran Firm attorneys Brian Dunn, Constance Rice and Megan Gyongyos.
“We hope that this verdict will save lives and change the way that the officers in the Long Beach Police Department and other police departments respond to people that are suffering from mental illnesses,” said The Cochran Firm managing attorney Brian Dunn. “It has been a great privilege and a great honor to join forces with such a venerable and respected law firm, Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt, to achieve to this wonderful result for this well-deserving family. We have been on opposite sides for a long time and it is a true blessing that we are on the same side this time.”
On the morning of January 15, 2017, Long Beach police officers Bradley Muhlenkamp and Elieser Domingo were dispatched to the intersection of 7th Street and Bellflower Boulevard near the Veterans Administration Hospital in the city of Long Beach. They were responding to reports that 37-year-old Sinuon Pream had been assaulting and threatening civilians with a knife. Upon arriving at the location, the officers observed Ms. Pream pushing a shopping cart and waving a knife. The officers, believing Ms. Pream to be possibly transient and possibly suffering from a mental illness, ordered her to drop the knife--a fruit carving knife less than 4 ½ inches long. She refused to do so and began moving away from the officers. The officers ordered Ms. Pream to drop the knife again and according to the officers, she refused to drop the knife and responded to the officers with profanity while proceeding to move away and continuing to wave the knife at them. Less than a minute later, the officers proceeded to fire a total of 8 total rounds at Ms. Pream, hitting her 7 times.