The mother of a 19-year-old man shot and killed by Buena Park police nearly five years ago said she had "mixed emotions" Thursday following a $3.5 million verdict in her favor against the city.
"Honestly, I have mixed emotions," Deanna Sullivan said of the judgment in her favor in the Aug. 19, 2019, fatal shooting of her son, David Patrick Sullivan.
"It's so difficult to try to keep going back and explaining to people and trying to get people to see these police officers didn't do their job," Sullivan said. "But I'm so grateful to this jury and, especially the foreman, who fought for us, fought for David and saw that these police officers didn't do their job that day and were trying to put the blame on David."
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A federal jury in 2022 deadlocked 5-1 for Sullivan, so attorney Gary Dordick decided to amend the complaint to get in front of a jury in Orange County Superior Court, where a unanimous verdict was not required. Jurors in state court on Wednesday voted 9-3 in favor of the plaintiffs.
The jury assigned 58% of the fault to David Sullivan and 42% to the officers, but since jurors found the shooting amounted to "intentional tort of battery," the city cannot have some of the damages shaved off, Dordick said.
Attorney Bruce D. Praet, who represented the city, disputes that. He said the judge has not ruled on that issue, and if the city prevails, it would have the verdict reduced to $1.47 million "after plaintiff had asked the jury for $45 million," Praet said.
Sullivan's family and attorneys have previously pressed Orange County supervisors and District Attorney Todd Spitzer to take another look at the shooting after prosecutors determined the officers -- Bobby Colon and Jennifer Tran -- could not be held criminally liable.
"The only recourse we had was the civil case," Deanna Sullivan said. "We can't force Todd Spitzer to charge those cops criminally, and we have asked and asked and we've never heard from him."
Dordick said many new facts came out of the trial that contradicted what the officers had previously said.
"I found a lot of information no one had been previously aware of that made a difference in the result," Dodrick said.
Sullivan was accused of stealing about $1,000 in cash as well as cigarettes, snacks and a gas can from a Shell station where he worked on the day he was killed, prosecutors said in their report clearing Colon and Tran. He put the stolen goods in the back of a customer's Range Rover and drove away.
Tran and Colon, though they were unaware the vehicle was stolen, started following the Range Rover because of an expired registration tag. Sullivan was pulled over about 11:35 a.m. in Fullerton, but when a records check showed the vehicle was stolen, the incident escalated.
As the officers went back to the vehicle, Sullivan started the engine, threw it into reverse, prompting Colon to jump out of the way before the Range Rover slammed into the police car, prosecutors said. Sullivan plowed over a traffic sign before crashing into a large palm tree and clipping two other vehicles.
He flipped off the officers before getting out of the vehicle and shouting an expletive at them before charging directly at Colon, prosecutors said.
"If you listen to the body-cam audio closely, you can hear Officer Tran saying to the sergeant who arrived on the scene that she was sitting in the patrol car when he rammed them, and that is important because it's a false statement," Dordick said. "It's completely false and it is suggesting he used a deadly weapon to commit assault on a police officer, and that's a felony justifying deadly force. And, in actual truth, she had to admit in trial that was not true. She said she had made a mistake. Well, it's hard to make a mistake about something material about a fatal shooting.
Her partner was standing there when she said it and he had an obligation to report the misstatement. His testimony was he didn't hear that, but I was able to show the statement recorded on his own body camera, and he finished her sentence," Dordick said.
Colon also said in his statement to prosecutors "He yelled stop before using deadly force, but in actual fact, he never said `stop' at all," Dordick said. "He stated in his district attorney statement that he yelled get on the ground before he shot and he never said the words `get on the ground.' I hired experts who for the first time revealed ballistics tests showing David Sullivan was at or near the ground when the fatal bullet was fired. ... There were numerous other inconsistencies in the testimony between depositions and testimony during the first trial."
The attorney added, "It was undisputed he was unarmed. They never saw a weapon."
Dordick also said that while city officials argued Sullivan was charging at the officers at the time of the shooting, evidence showed he was shot in the side and in the back, so he was running past them.
"It was more of a cry for help," Dordick said. "If the officers followed standard training practices, it wouldn't have come down to lethal force."
The officers said they found a suicide note in Sullivan's wallet, so the city argued it was a case of suicide by cop.
"Tragically, the suicide notes found on David Sullivan corroborated the fact that this was a clear case of suicide by cop," Praet said.
Dordick said there were other inconsistencies in the accounts of the officers.
Though they said they feared he had a weapon in his waistband, after he was shot they never checked the waistband for a weapon and even put his hands on his waistband when handcuffing him, Dordick said.
Sullivan was a "young person suffering a mental breakdown," and police had a duty to protect him, Dordick said.
"If the officers followed standard training practices it wouldn't have come down to lethal force," Dordick said. "They panicked, shot when they shouldn't have. What they should have done was accepted responsibility and be held accountable; instead, they covered up the shooting and refused to accept responsibility."
A friend of the family who was like an uncle died within one day of his grandfather at the end of May of 2019, Deanna Sullivan said. David Sullivan had been a primary caregiver for his grandfather in the four months before he succumbed to a terminal illness.
She disputed that her son would want to take his own life the way the city argued. She said he had been talking about meeting up with a friend he met online and had a packed bag with him at the time of the shooting. Jurors did not hear that evidence because the woman apparently did not want to be involved in the trial.
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