What's at stake?
Alleging wrongful death, gross negligence and constitutional violations, the family of Joseph Perez is seeking unspecified damages from the city and county of Fresno and the ambulance company that responded to the scene in 2017.
Jury selection gets underway later this month in a wrongful death trial in which the family of a 41-year-old Fresno man says he died after city police and county deputies restrained him face down on the ground.
Alleging wrongful death, gross negligence and constitutional violations, the family of Joseph Perez is seeking unspecified damages from the city and county of Fresno and the parent corporation of the ambulance company that responded to the scene in 2017.
In a statement to Fresnoland, Perez family attorney Neil Gehlawat called it a “very tragic case” and noted that the coroner concluded Perez’s death was a homicide due to “compressive asphyxia.”
“He died because officers/deputies restrained him face down for several minutes and one officer ultimately sat on top of a backboard placed on his back at the direction of a paramedic,” Gehlawat said. “His death was preventable and could have been avoided if the Defendant officers and paramedics followed their training.”
Officials with the city and county of Fresno did not respond to requests for comment.
In court filings and previous arguments, authorities have said the officers should be immune from liability in connection with Perez’s death, essentially arguing that Perez caused the episode by being under the influence of methamphetamine and arguing and fighting with the officers instead of following legal commands.
Attorneys for the Perez family have countered that officers should be liable because they detained and restrained Perez for his own safety and protection but ultimately killed him.
While the coroner’s office classified the death as a homicide, they also noted Perez’s methamphetamine intoxication was “10 times” above a typically lethal dose.
Police encountered Perez on May, 10, 2017, screaming and running in and out of traffic near the intersection at Palm and Santa Fe Avenues. They detained and placed him in handcuffs, they said, to protect Perez. Video footage shows Perez refusing to follow commands.
Police took the handcuffed man to the ground, where a lengthy struggle ensued that included police and deputies briefly hog-tying Perez, who wound up face down on the pavement.
At one point during the struggle, a sheriff’s deputy allegedly placed a towel over Perez’s face — video shows Perez appearing to hit his own head against the ground — which the family says further restricted Perez’s breathing.
An American Ambulance paramedic told police to restrain Perez while they secured a backboard to Perez’s back so they could flip him over and carry him to the ambulance. While one officer sat on Perez’s back as the paramedic worked, Perez told police that he could not breath.
As the struggle continued, according to the lawsuit, Perez lost consciousness and had no pulse when paramedics eventually turned him over.
“None of the Defendants performed CPR on him at that time,” the family says in the complaint.
Perez was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Fresno police and sheriff’s deputies have been repeatedly cleared in connection with Perez’s death, with the Fresno Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney and the Office of Independent Review all concluding the officers and deputies acted within policy during the incident.
Federal courts also sided with police and deputies in 2024, concluding that the officers involved are entitled to “qualified immunity,” a protection created by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 that generally shields government employees from liability.
Perez family attorneys say the federal qualified immunity standard doesn’t apply to state cases, but court records show Fresno authorities have argued for immunity in the upcoming case.
The federal ruling was upheld 2-1 by a divided appeals court panel, with one dissenting judge noting that officers and deputies ignored their training and knew the dangers of compression-related restraints.
In previous news media interviews, family members have described Perez as a hard-working air conditioning repairman and a married father of two children.
While Perez’s case happened about three years before the 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, the similarities fueled renewed scrutiny in the Fresno case in 2021 after the family’s attorneys released police body camera footage of the incident.
Both sides are expected to appear before Judge Lisa M. Gamoian on Jan. 15 in Fresno County Superior Court.
