Modesto to pay $450,000 in fatal police shooting of mentally ill, intoxicated woman
Modesto has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit in the 2016 fatal shooting by police officers of an intoxicated, distraught 52-year-old woman who charged one of the officers while armed with knives.
Former Officer Joseph Lamantia is one of the officers named in the lawsuit. The Police Department fired him in March 2021 after he fatally shot Trevor Seever in December 2020.
Seever was Lamantia’s fourth fatal officer-involved shooting during his dozen years as a Modesto officer. Prosecutors cleared him in three of the shootings but charged him with voluntary manslaughter in Seever’s death.
Modesto agreed in April to pay $7.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the city by Seever’s family. Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Carrie Stephens ruled in July that Lamantia would not stand trial in Seever’s death because he had a reasonable fear for his safety.
Lamantia’s criminal defense attorney has said the former officer is seeking to get his job back through arbitration.
Sacramento-based attorney Mark Merin represents the family of Kim Jackson, the 52-year-old woman who died at the hands of police. He said attorneys representing the city agreed to the $450,000 at an Oct. 17 settlement conference.
City Attorney Jose Sanchez provided this statement Friday: “In the interest of bringing an end to the litigation ... the parties have mutually agreed to a global settlement of all claims for $450,000. The settlement is not an admission of liability by the defendants.”
Did authorities withhold information?
Besides Lamantia, the lawsuit named Sgt. Alex Bettis and Officer Michael Callahan. The Police Department determined the shooting was within its policy, and the District Attorney’s Office determined it was justified. Bettis now works as an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office, and Callahan recently retired.
Jackson’s parents and two adult children sued Modesto in federal court in March 2021. The lawsuit states the family pursued litigation only after learning in November 2020 that the police and prosecutors had not told the full story about the shooting.
The lawsuit alleges that the complete story includes the officers not developing a game plan to safely take an intoxicated, distraught Jackson into custody and that Bettis mistakenly shot her with a breaching round, which is used to destroy locks and can be fatal, and not a nonlethal beanbag round from his shotgun.
An Internal Affairs investigation found that while Bettis understood Jackson was a danger, he failed to impart that to the other officers. But Bettis told investigators there was a plan to take Jackson into custody.
Jackson’s father called 911 twice in the early morning of Oct. 8, 2016, first because she was drunk and vandalizing his Modesto home and again when she returned two hours later armed with knives.
She hid from officers the first time they arrived. Bettis, Callahan and Lamantia responded to the second call. Callahan was armed with a Taser, Bettis with the shotgun with what he thought were nonlethal beanbag rounds and Lamantia with a handgun in which one of the rounds was a breaching round.
Callahan wanted to take Jackson into custody on a 72-hour mental health hold. Callahan can be heard on body-camera footage telling Jackson to put down the knives, but she responded “something to the effect of you’re going to have to shoot me,” according to a July 2018 letter from the Stanislaus County DA’s Office to then Police Chief Galen Carroll summarizing its investigation of the shooting.
Seconds later, Jackson raised the knives over her head and charged Lamantia. All three discharged their weapons. Merin’s office provided The Bee with body camera footage from the three officers. It shows all of the shooting took place in about three seconds.
Officer backs up before firing
Lamantia repeatedly asked Jackson to back up, and he retreated before shooting her from about a dozen feet away in the street. The footage shows that after Lamantia shot Jackson once in the chest, she dropped the knives and staggered away from the officers.
Lamantia shot her a second time, grazing her forearm. Callahan fired his Taser, striking Jackson in the left wrist, and Bettis fired two rounds from his shotgun, striking her in the back with the breaching round, according to the lawsuit.
The Internal Affairs investigation cites Jackson’s autopsy stating Lamantia’s first shot and Bettis’ breaching round were fatal and Jackson died from blood loss from both gunshots.
The lawsuit claims Modesto officers had extensive contacts with Jackson and knew she struggled with mental health and substance abuse issues and did not use appropriate deescalation tactics.
Her blood alcohol level was 0.22% and she had a significant amount of methamphetamine in her system, according to the Internal Affairs investigation. The lawsuit alleges the sergeant and two officers acted in a way that worsened the symptoms of her mental illness, including her fear and anxiety.
