A federal jury delivered an $11.8 million verdict in favor of Isaac Castellanos, a Los Angeles Dodgers fan who was permanently blinded in one eye when LAPD officers fired a so-called “less-lethal” projectile into a crowd celebrating the team's 2020 World Series victory.
The unanimous verdict, reached after less than two hours of deliberation, found that two LAPD officers used excessive force, acted negligently, and violated Castellanos' constitutional rights.
Los Angeles personal injury attorneys Monique Alarcon and Pedram Esfandiary, partners at Wisner Baum, tried the case on behalf of Castellanos in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Castellanos v. City of Los Angeles, et al., Case No. 2:22-cv-01165).
“This is not just a verdict, it is a warning,” said attorney Pedram Esfandiary. “Law enforcement cannot fire weapons into crowds and hide behind the label 'less-lethal.' When improperly used, these weapons can cause serious injury and even death. Here, our client suffered a devastating, life-altering injury due to officers' improper use of this weapon. A jury saw the truth and held the LAPD accountable.”
On the night of October 27, 2020, the Dodgers clinched their first World Series title in over 30 years, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays. Isaac Castellanos, then a 22-year-old senior at California State University, Long Beach, drove downtown with friends to celebrate near what is now the Crypto.com Arena.
Around 1 a.m. on October 28, LAPD officers moved in on the gathered crowd. According to the complaint, officers advanced and began firing 37-mm kinetic impact projectiles — hard-foam rounds designed to ricochet off the ground and strike people in the lower body — without issuing a dispersal order or any warning.
Castellanos was struck directly in the right eye. The injury was catastrophic and permanent.
After a 10-day trial that included six days of testimony, the jury found Officers Cody MacArthur and Jesse Pineda liable on every claim brought by Castellanos, including excessive force under the Fourth Amendment, violations of California's Bane Act, and negligence. Liability was apportioned equally between the two officers.
A critical issue at trial was the distance from which the officers fired. LAPD policy requires these weapons to be used at close range. Evidence presented by Castellanos' attorneys showed the rounds were fired from approximately 145 feet away, which is far enough for the projectile to rise from ground level to eye level, defeating the weapon's intended skip-fire trajectory. As attorney Pedram Esfandiary argued at trial, the officers had roughly two minutes between a bottle being thrown and the decision to fire; this was not a split-second judgment call.
The $11.8 million compensatory award includes $7 million for future pain and suffering, emotional distress, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life; $1 million for past noneconomic damages; nearly $3.7 million for loss of earning capacity; and $135,749 for future medical care. Attorneys for Castellanos have moved to triple the damages under California's Bane Act, which could bring the total judgment to approximately $35 million.
The verdict's dollar figure reflects devastating, permanent consequences for Castellanos, who described losing central vision in his right eye as complete blackness when his left eye is closed. His depth perception is severely impaired, making everyday tasks unpredictable. Specialists have told him he will never be able to read a book with the injured eye.
The injury also destroyed a promising gaming career. Just weeks before the incident, Castellanos had won a prize in a competitive gaming tournament. His trajectory as a professional esports athlete and streamer ended the moment the projectile struck.
“Calling these weapons 'less-lethal' is dangerously misleading,” said Monique Alarcon, attorney and partner at Wisner Baum. “Isaac's injury is permanent. His life is permanently altered. That is not 'less' anything.”
This verdict is the largest in a growing wave of cases challenging the LAPD's crowd-control practices. According to an analysis by LAist, the City of Los Angeles has already paid out more than $19 million in liabilities stemming from LAPD crowd-control actions since 2020. At least seven additional cases have exceeded $1 million in damages, and multiple lawsuits alleging permanent blindness and severe head injuries from similar munitions remain pending.
A federal judge separately issued an injunction in January 2026 barring the LAPD from using 40-mm launchers in crowd-control situations. In 2021, California passed legislation restricting the use of less-lethal munitions, prohibiting officers from firing indiscriminately into crowds or targeting the head, neck, or vital organs.
Despite these measures, the pattern continues. The LAPD fired nearly 1,400 less-lethal rounds over a six-day period during June 2025 protests against federal immigration policies in downtown Los Angeles.
“I think this behooves the City of Los Angeles and the LAPD to really take a look at their crowd control practices and consider discontinuing using these weapons in those settings, because people get really hurt,” attorney Monique Alarcon told LAist.
Wisner Baum is a Los Angeles-based law firm built on a legacy of holding powerful corporations accountable—not just to win justice for individual clients, but to spark broader societal change. Since 1985, the firm has obtained more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlements for clients in cases that helped raise public awareness, influence regulations, and force industries to change harmful practices.
