SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A San Diego jury has awarded $85 million to the family of a 32-year-old father who died after San Diego Sheriff’s Department deputies shocked, beat, and hogtied him in 2015, causing his heart to stop.
Lucky Phounsy called 911 in April 2015 after experiencing paranoid delusions due to the fact that he had not slept in two days. When the sheriff’s deputies arrived, Lucky’s family explained the situation and asked the deputies to try and convince Lucky to the go to the hospital so that he could get a sleep aid. Instead, when the deputies entered the house, they immediately attempted to handcuff Lucky. Lucky, who was unarmed, had done nothing wrong, and was in his own home minding his own business, was frightened and confused and pulled his hand back. Unfortunately, he struck a female deputy in the nose, which caused both deputies to begin assaulting him. The deputies called for back-up and numerous deputies joined the assault. Lucky was punched, struck with a baton, and tased.
The deputies then hog-tied Lucky with his hands behind his back and placed him on his stomach, in violation of their training. This led to Lucky having to struggle to breathe, and he was losing consciousness.
An ambulance arrived to take Lucky to the hospital. While Lucky was in the ambulance, former San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Fischer (an extraordinarily muscular individual) held a spit-sock over Lucky’s face with a force that he testified was a “9 out of 10”. This was too much, and Lucky’s heart stopped on the way to the hospital. He went into a coma and never regained consciousness.
Fischer is currently serving a four-year prison term for assaulting women while on duty; he pled guilty to several felony and misdemeanor charges in September 2019. Although the San Diego Sheriff’s Department began receiving complaints from citizens who had been assaulted by Fischer years before he assaulted Lucky, the Sheriff’s Department ignored these complaints.
Phounsy’s family sued the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the deputies involved in the incident for excessive force, failing to administer medical care, battery negligence, and wrongful death in 2015.
This week, after hearing the evidence, a San Diego Superior Court jury awarded Phounsy’s family $85 million in damages. The case was tried by Mark Fleming and Kimberly Trimble of Singleton Schreiber and Timothy Scott and Marcus Bourassa.
“This was a tragic event that happened to a wonderful family, and this case is all about an utter lack of accountability,” said Gerald Singleton, founder and managing partner of Singleton Schreiber. “This case should send a message to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. We all respect and admire the thousands of law enforcement professionals who do their jobs honorably. Unfortunately, there is a small minority of officers who violate their oath and harm the people they are sworn to protect. Failing to hold these bad apples accountable – as the San Diego Sheriff’s Department has repeatedly done – tarnishes the name of all those good officers and puts the public in danger. There needs to be a serious change in how the Sheriff’s Department responds to citizen complaints.”
“Lucky’s family are wonderful people and this tragedy was utterly avoidable. While this holds the people who harmed Lucky responsible, their main objective is making sure that no other family ever has to go through this again,” Singleton said.
For more information, please visit www.singletonschreiber.com.
