Modesto pays nearly $743,000 in wrongful death lawsuit of single mom who killed herself
It has cost Modesto nearly $743,000 to resolve a 5-year-old wrongful death lawsuit that alleged its police officers abandoned a mentally ill single mother. She died in a house fire soon after they left, a fire the lawsuit claims the woman “most likely ignited ... (while) in her delusional state.”
Amanda Pennaluna, 26, died of smoke and toxic chemical inhalation June 22, 2013, hours after firefighters responded to her Ottawa Court home and after officers had taken her then 4-year-old daughter into protective custody and left Pennaluna alone in the home.
She had called 911 around 10:40 p.m. on June 21, 2013, to report that a SWAT team was outside her home and she needed more time to turn her daughter over to the SWAT officers. But the lawsuit says there was no SWAT team when Pennaluna made her call.
Instead, the lawsuit says when two Modesto Police Department officers arrived in response to the 911 call, they found the 4-year-old in the street and she told them she had been locked out and her mother was sick. The officers entered the home and found it in disarray and Pennaluna holding a knife, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says eventually about 10 officers responded to the call, but they did not disarm Pennaluna, who was 5 feet tall and weighed 110 pounds, or get her help.
Pennaluna’s sister said in a 2013 interview that Pennaluna did not have to die if officers had stayed with her until she was calm and then taken her into protective custody. “She should not have been left alone,” the sister said.
The sister went to the police department that evening to pick up Pennaluna’s daughter after getting a call from child protective services. The lawsuit states the sister told police Pennaluna struggled with bipolar disorder and wanted to go to her home to calm her down. But the lawsuit alleges police told her not to do that because officers would safely resolve the situation by taking Pennaluna to jail or behavioral health.
Pennaluna’s daughter and her sister, acting as the daughter’s guardian, sued Modesto in Stanislaus Superior Court in July 2014. They are identified in court records as Sheila Doe and Nicole Doe to conceal their true last names. They were represented by Bay Area attorney Annie Wu, who is out of the country and not available for comment.
Nicole Doe declined to comment because she signed a confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement and wanted to wait until Wu is back in the country.
The litigation was lengthy and expensive. The city initially got the lawsuit dismissed, but attorneys for Nicole Doe and the daughter appealed and were allowed to refile. A settlement was finalized in July, with the city paying $240,000.
That was divided into $120,987 for an annuity for Pennaluna’s daughter (an annuity is a type of investment in which someone receives payments in the future), $96,000 for attorney fees and $23,013 to reimburse medical and other costs, according to court records.
Modesto reported it spent $502,689 defending itself in the lawsuit.
That brought the city’s total costs to nearly $743,000. The city bore the full cost, and insurance did not cover any of it, said city spokesman Thomas Reeves. Modesto used Meyers Nave — the law firm the city has retained as its city attorney — to defend it in the lawsuit.
“The city is very satisfied with this result,” Reeves said in a statement. “This is a factually complex case involving a child that lost her mother. If the plaintiff (Pennaluna’s daughter and sister) had been successful, there would have been a large judgment against the city, potentially approaching or exceeding seven figures.
“But the city aggressively and actively litigated this case in both the trial court and the Court of Appeal to demonstrate the weaknesses of the plaintiff’s arguments, which drove down the plaintiff’s settlement demands to a reasonable level that the city could accept. By settling, the city avoided a complex jury trial that would have significantly increased the city’s legal costs, and exposed the city to potentially significant liability.”
Police Chief Galen Carroll said in a statement his officers were placed in a no-win situation.
“I feel bad for the daughter,” he said, “but the mother was holding a knife, and we had a choice, do you push it with the possibility of using deadly force or do you walk away and protect the child? The Police Department has no duty to stop someone from killing themselves.
“More and more police departments are walking away on these types of cases because we just can’t win. Force the issue, we get sued for excessive force. Walk away, and we get sued for walking away. ... The final outcome was tragic, however, we had a choice between two bad options.”
The Bee learned about the settlement through filing a California Public Records Act request, asking the city for the payments it had made during the third quarter of this year — July 1 through Sept. 30 — to resolve claims and lawsuits filed against the city.
Including the Pennaluna lawsuit, Modesto paid $395,900 in the third quarter to settle 33 claims and lawsuits and $664,454 defending itself, for a total of $1.06 million, with all of it paid by the city and none by insurance.
Modesto initially misreported the Pennaluna settlement, stating it was for $119,013 and that the city had spent $689.16 defending itself. The city revised the amounts after the newspaper asked why the legal costs were so low for a 5-year-old lawsuit and that court records showed the settlement was for $240,000.
Reeves attributed the mistake to human error and that the city did not review the records as thoroughly as it typically does before releasing them.
Modesto paid $726,284 during the first nine months of this year to settle 59 claims and lawsuits filed against it and spent $923,904 defending itself, for a total of $1.65 million. Many of the claims and lawsuits were for city trees and tree limbs falling and damaging parked cars and other private property and for city drivers getting into traffic accidents.
Pennaluna’s sister said in a 2013 interview that Pennaluna was friendly, outgoing, had a great sense of humor and was a devoted mom. She said Pennaluna had been living with a family friend on Ottawa Court for about a year. Pennaluna did not drink or use drugs, her sister said, and had never had a breakdown before that June 2013 night.
“I never expected her to do anything like this,” the sister said.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 3:41 PM.
