A jury awarded $11.8 million in damages to a man who said he was permanently blinded in his right eye after police struck him with a projectile as he was leaving a celebration of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2020 World Series victory.
The Thursday verdict in the US District Court for the Central District of California holds LA Police Department officers Cody MacArthur and Jesse Pineda liable on each of Isaac Castellanos’ claims, finding the officers were negligent and used excessive force, in violation of his civil rights.
The city and the LAPD officers disputed that it was one of their projectiles that hit Castellanos and argued he ignored an order for the crowd to disperse, according to a joint statement of the case filed in January.
Castellanos was a 22-year-old college student at California State University, Long Beach and professional esports athlete and streamer at the time, according to a 2023 amended complaint.
The damages—for Castellanos’ future medical care, loss of earning capacity, and past and future pain and suffering—could triple to about $35 million with court approval, said Pedram Esfandiary of Wisner Baum LLP, who represents Castellanos.
Esfandiary said the verdict was unanimous and “I just hope it’s another nail in the coffin of how police use these weapons, particularly in these group settings.”
“We keep having these verdicts over and over again and it really is time for some fundamental change,” he said.
The LAPD is facing several lawsuits over its use of blunt-force weapons at gatherings and protests, including one brought by plaintiffs who said police injured them using “war zone"-like force at June protests against immigration raids.
An LA federal judge separately held the city in contempt in January over LAPD’s use of launchers shooting bullet-like projectiles during the June protests, in a case that was filed over police force during LA protests that started in 2020 over the murder of George Floyd.
The city didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is Castellanos v. City of Los Angeles, C.D. Cal., No. 2:22-cv-01165, 4/16/26.
(Adds comment from Castellanos' lawyer starting in paragraph four.)
