Photo: VALERIE MACON / AFP / Getty Images
A payment of $3.80 million dollars was authorized this Tuesday unanimously by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to resolve a federal lawsuit filed by relatives of a man who died of cardiac arrest after having a fight with bailiffs on the night of January 6, 2017.
According to Los Angeles Sheriff’s officials, deputies went to a residence on East 123rd Street after a call from a woman who reported that her son was under the influence of drugs and behaved violently.
An internal investigation by the county indicated that Brian Pickett’s mother told arriving deputies that her son had been taking methamphetamine and had threatened to kill her and her sister.
It was then that it happened a fight between Pickett and the bailiffs, in which the man resisted arrest. One of the officers used a taser to try to subdue him.
Pickett, of 34 years, was handcuffed after the fight. The bailiffs requested the presence of the paramedics, but Brian suffered a cardiac arrest and died in a hospital .
In 2017, Pickett’s family filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles alleging that the bailiffs had had communication with Brian on previous occasions and knew that he suffered from mental illness, and in the January lawsuit 2015 the agents resorted to an excess of force, resulting in death.
The lawsuit says that Pickett was “punched, kicked, pushed and thrown” by the bailiffs when he refused to stop singing and leave the bathroom.
Allegedly, one of the officers tasered Pickett for more than 26 seconds, which caused him to fall face down in the bathtub, hitting himself the head on a metal bar in the way.
The bailiff continued to apply the electrical current while Pickett lay in the bathtub, feet shaking the voltage.
According to the lawsuit, Pickett suffered substantial and severe physical and emotional pain and suffering prior to his death.
Los Angeles County prosecutors reviewed the case and did not file charges against the sheriffs involved.
An internal investigation at the Sheriff’s Department determined that the sheriffs had acted within department policy.
A county staff report asked the board to approve the settlement due to the high risk and uncertainty of the litigation, and said settling the lawsuit for a “reasonable amount” would avoid further litigation costs.
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