A federal court jury has ordered the City of L.A. to pay more than $11.7 million to a man partially blinded by LAPD officers during the 2020 Dodgers World Series celebrations.
Isaac Castellanos was struck and permanently blinded in one eye on Oct. 28, 2020, when two officers fired 37mm less lethal launchers toward the crowd he was standing in, Castellanos testified in court. He was 22 years old at the time.
The jury unanimously found that Officers Cody MacArthur and Jesse Pineda acted negligently, used excessive force and violated Castellanos’ constitutional rights when they fired into the crowd and caused his injury.
Castellanos’ isn’t the first of such cases LAPD will face, and more are working their way through the courts.
The city has already paid more than $19 million in liabilities stemming from LAPD’s crowd control actions since the beginning of 2020, according to an LAist analysis of data from the City Attorney’s office. Castellanos’ verdict is by far the largest sum awarded since then.
Castellanos and his lawyers told LAist that people should feel free to peacefully celebrate or exercise their first amendment rights without fear of being injured by the police.
“ I'm grateful to have this system of justice where Isaac can be compensated,” Castellanos’ lawyer Pedram Esfandiary told LAist, “and I just hope that this sends a loud and clear message to the LAPD that this is not okay.”
The LAPD has not responded to LAist’s request for comment on the case.
What happened to Castellanos
When the Dodgers won their first world series in more than three decades on Oct. 27, 2020, Castellanos and his friends went to downtown L.A. to celebrate.
They didn’t see any police officers nearby when they arrived, Castellanos testified in court, but within minutes they noticed a squad of police officers gathering down the street.
Video evidence presented in the trial showed that some people in the crowd threw rocks and glass bottles toward the officers, but Castellanos said he was not involved. He said he did not act violently or aggressively.
Castellanos said he saw the officers holding “some kind of firearms”start to move toward the crowd, but he did not hear any order for the crowd to leave.
He had begun to leave, he said, when he saw a bright muzzle flash from the direction of the officers and heard a loud pop.
He was immediately in extreme pain and felt warm blood coming from his face, he testified. He also noticed a loss of vision in his right eye.
Dr. Jerry Sebag is an eye specialist who testified as an expert witness in the case. He said that Castellanos experienced “severe blunt force trauma” to his eye, most likely from a rubber bullet, causing legal blindness in his right eye and a loss of depth perception.
Sebag said there is no medication or surgery that could fix his condition.
Evidence provided in the case later proved that MacArthur and Pineda fired 37mm less lethal launchers at the same place and time as Castellanos says he was injured.
Lawyers for Castellanos argued in court that the officers used their weapons outside of LAPD policy, being too far away from the crowd to accurately use the weapons and not issuing a warning or dispersal order to allow Castellanos a chance to leave.
The city’s attorneys claimed that it was not the officers who caused the injury, and that the officers’ use of their weapons was within policy as they were responding to a threat from the crowd.
