Much has changed in the four years since Kelly Thomas, a homeless man with severe mental illness, died after a violent encounter with Fullerton police.
Police in Fullerton work differently today than they did then. The city treats people with mental illnesses differently, too.
The protests and media glare that immediately followed Thomas’ death have largely come and gone, driving out members of the police force and altering Fullerton’s city politics.
But those changes haven’t satisfied Thomas’ father, Ron Thomas.
As he gets ready for the next chapter in his saga – a wrongful-death lawsuit set to begin this month in Orange County Superior Court – Thomas seeks a measure of justice. It’s something he says didn’t happen when jurors in a criminal trial acquitted two officers charged in the July 5, 2011, altercation that preceded his son’s death.
“The lawsuit for me is really about accountability,” Thomas said. “It’s for the city Police Department to acknowledge that they did wrong.”
HIGH-STAKES TRIAL
The video – the one that shows police piling atop Kelly Thomas and beating him at a transit center in Fullerton; the one in which Thomas can be heard seeking help by calling “Dad” before he loses consciousness – helped turn the 37-year-old man’s death into a catalyst for change.
Public protests erupted after that video went viral. Stories about the incident became national and international news.
The protests targeted Fullerton’s police and city officials. The stories were about police work, transients who have mental illnesses and the violence that often results when they intersect.
The name “Kelly Thomas” became, in many quarters, code for police brutality.
Three Fullerton police officers lost their jobs. Police Chief Michael Sellers took a medical retirement.
The civil trial, before Superior Court Judge Kirk Nakamura in Santa Ana, will involve several questions: Was Thomas a victim of assault and battery? Were his civil rights violated? Were police supervisors liable in any way?
The lawsuit names former Fullerton police Officers Manuel Ramos, Jay Cicinelli and Joseph Wolfe, who were all fired from the department; Officers Kevin Craig and James Blatney, who remain with the department; ex-Chief Sellers and his predecessor, Patrick McKinley, who sat on the City Council at the time of the incident and was later recalled.
Dana Fox, the private attorney representing the city in the lawsuit, said there is more to the case than just the video.
“This was an unfortunate incident. It’s unfortunate that Kelly died,” Fox said.
“But the city is looking forward to the jury hearing all the evidence – not just a picture or snippet of video, but all of the evidence – and rely on the law and jury instructions for a fair verdict.”
There’s still a chance of a settlement, but if a trial takes place jurors will first need to determine if one or more of the officers used excessive force.
If the answer is no, the trial is over, Fox said.
If jurors decide that one or more of the officers used excessive force, the civil trial moves to a second phase to determine whether the city and the officials named in the lawsuit are liable for the conduct of the officers.
Any punitive or compensatory damages would be awarded under court guidelines.
The criminal trial, which ended in January 2014, was highly scrutinized. And the results – Ramos was acquitted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter; Cicinelli was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force – drew new rounds of protests.
The civil trial also figures to be tracked closely.
The burden of proof is less in a civil case than it is in a criminal trial. But the outcome, either way, is expected to resonate at a time when police conduct is under intense scrutiny around the nation.
“If the plaintiff wins, it will send a message of wrongful police behavior,” said UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
“If the police win, it will reinforce a sense of how difficult it is to convince a jury to hold police liable.”
What the jury decides also could say something about the value of the life of Kelly Thomas, a drifter with mental illness.
“A finding of liability and significant damages will convey that all lives have value,” Chemerinsky said.
And if it goes the other way?
“It would be seen as reflecting a lack of valuing of the mentally ill.”
‘THAT’S HIS LEGACY’
Kelly Thomas died five days after the violent confrontation with police at the Fullerton Transportation Center.
During the altercation, he was struck with a baton, punched, shocked with a Taser and struck in the face with the butt end of a Taser.
Scrawny and scruffy with tangled red hair and an unkempt beard, Kelly Thomas was known around Fullerton, Brea and Placentia. Some people found him a nuisance; others saw him as harmless.
Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Thomas suffered from mental illness throughout his adult life. Labeled “gravely disabled” by county mental health officials, he spent months inside psychiatric treatment centers.
He also had brushes with the law, mostly for petty incidents – trespassing, obstructing businesses and unlawful camping. He had one felony conviction, for assaulting his grandfather with a fireplace poker in 1995. When police officers encountered him on July 5, 2011, he was suspected of opening car doors, possibly with the intent of stealing from the vehicles.
The Thomas family struggled with getting him to agree to treatment. In the year before he died, his mother, Cathy Thomas, took out a restraining order to force the issue. It didn’t work.
“He was just another mentally ill man,” Ron Thomas said. “So many people really just don’t care for the homeless and the mentally ill.”
But his son’s death did result in decisive public action.
The police altercation and the way it was handled played a role in 2012 when Fullerton voters decided to recall council members McKinley, F. Richard Jones and Don Bankhead. Recall organizers targeted the three for remaining silent.
The city also paid a $1 million settlement in 2012 to Cathy Thomas.
The circumstances surrounding Kelly Thomas’ death – and the way he had been living on the streets of Orange County – also spurred public officials to initiate reforms in law enforcement practices and treatment of those with mental illness. Others stepped up efforts to house the homeless.
Police departments, including Fullerton’s, are providing better training for officers in dealing with those who have mental illnesses and adding more “homeless liaison” officers.
The encounter with Kelly Thomas also has played a role locally in requiring, or at least considering, that police officers wear body cameras. In February, Fullerton became the first Orange County agency to outfit all field officers with body cameras.
In the mental health arena, Ron Thomas said he has used his son’s death as “a huge platform.” He was a constant presence at public meetings when county officials discussed and, last year, finally adopted what is known as Laura’s Law.
The law empowers officials to order people with severe mental illness, like Kelly Thomas, into treatment. Orange County was the first big county in the nation to enact the measure.
“That’s his legacy,” Ron Thomas said.
But in court, the Thomas family still waits.
Of the six officers at the scene that summer night in 2011, only Ramos and Cicinelli faced a trial. Charges were dropped against Wolfe, who had been indicted by a grand jury.
Unlike in criminal court, the accused officers can be compelled to take the stand. Although officers can invoke the Fifth Amendment and not testify, plaintiff’s attorney Garo Mardirossian said he doesn’t expect that to happen.
“Once people see what they did and why they did it, they will be found liable,” he said. “There is no escaping the jury.”
LOVE AND MONEY
If Ron Thomas prevails in the lawsuit, monetary damages resulting from a civil trial could be damning as well as costly.
In a wrongful death lawsuit, the amount of punitive damages – especially if it’s a large number – is aimed at scolding the defendants and changing behavior, said Eric Traut, former president of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association.
“It says, ‘This was intentional, you need to be punished and here’s the number we’re punishing you with,’” said Traut, who has handled multiple wrongful- death cases over his 25 years with the Traut Firm in Santa Ana.
“That’s what hits home.”
Any compensation to Ron Thomas will turn on the father-son relationship.
Factors such as loss of future earnings or missing out on seeing his son married and having children might not be at issue in this case because of Kelly Thomas’ mental state.
So the case is about establishing who Kelly Thomas was to his father, Traut said, “that this wasn’t just someone you see out on the street harassing people, nutty – all those things that might pop into a juror’s head when they think about the homeless.”
When asked about their relationship, or when he last saw Kelly Thomas before the altercation, Ron Thomas did not give an answer, citing the pending civil case.
But he did say this about his dedication to seeking what he views as justice for his son:
“I knew it would be a long road. I keep telling people that no matter what I’ve gone through, it’s nothing compared to what Kelly went through.
“I do it for him.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7793 or twalker@ocregister.com714-704-3730 or lponsi@ocregister.com