City officials are paying out more than half-a-million dollars after officers injured protesters rallying against police brutality in summer 2020.
The $620,000 settlement comes in response to a civil rights lawsuit filed five years ago by the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley, San Jose Peace and Justice Center and community organizers such as Derrick Sanderlin — who was shot by police in the groin with a 40mm less lethal projectile during citywide protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. This settlement to six individuals ends all pending lawsuits.
San Jose officials attempted to block the lawsuit from moving forward, going so far as to unsuccessfully invoke qualified immunity for Michael Panighetti, the police officer who shot and injured Sanderlin. San Jose decided to settle the matter out of court, after Ninth Circuit Court Judge Jacqueline Nguyen said the officer intended to restrain Sanderlin with the projectile.
A San Jose police spokesperson told San José Spotlight the department doesn’t comment on matters of litigation. Panighetti continues to serve as an SJPD officer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“The wheels are still spinning in my head and this process has been going on for so long,” Sanderlin told San José Spotlight. “But I still try to do work around public safety so there’s just a lot of residual feelings.”
The settlement terms show Sanderlin and his partner, Cayla, will receive $500,000. Five other community members will also receive compensation, including $40,000 for Vera Clayton, $20,000 for Breanna Contreras, $20,000 for Pietro Di donato, $20,000 for Adira Sharkey and $20,000 Joseph Stukes.
Silicon Valley De-Bug founder Raj Jayadev said the city is settling to avoid the embarrassment of being found liable for causing harm against its own residents.
“The fact that these officers are still on the force, it’s completely consistent with what families here in San Jose have been talking a lot about for a long time, which is officers who kill or injure continue to move up the ladder within the police department,” he told San José Spotlight. “If they went to trial, it would resurface how violent and out of control the San Jose Police Department was during, before and after that period.”
A spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office said there are no other claims arising from the 2020 protests pending against the city or its police officers — and the most recent lawsuit settlement resolves all remaining claims without admitting liability.
“The lawsuit was filed on July 23, 2020, by eight individuals who alleged they were injured by city police officers during the George Floyd protests in May and June of 2020,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “One of the plaintiffs settled in November 2022 for payment of $15,000.”
Kiana Simmons, co-founder of community organization Hero Tent, said she first met Sanderlin at the protests and became emotionally invested in his recovery from police injuries. She said it was sad to see San Jose paying out so much money to settle accusations of police misconduct amid the ongoing budget deficit.
“He’s one of my mentors in this work,” she told San José Spotlight. “To see him go through this journey of being injured and unsure if he could grow his family, to now having a family and the settlement coming, his resilience is pretty amazing.”
Sanderlin said he plans to meet with a financial advisor and donate to criminal justice reform groups that supported him throughout the past five years.
“The responsibility to protect our people lays squarely on our shoulders, and we don’t have to do it alone, but nobody’s going to do it for us,” he told San José Spotlight.
Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X.
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