The city of Los Angeles will pay nearly $40 million to settle three lawsuits alleging abuses by the LAPD, including a case brought by the family of a Trader Joe’s manager accidentally killed by a police officer who was firing at a fleeing suspect.
Melyda “Mely” Corado was fatally shot in 2018 at the Silver Lake store where she worked. Her father and brother sued the city and the officers involved in the shooting, alleging that they opened fire recklessly into the crowded store.
The $9.5 million settlement with the Corado family, which was previously negotiated but hadn’t been disclosed, was the smallest of three payouts the City Council approved on Friday.
The others were:
- $17.7 million for the family of Kenneth French, a 32-year-old mentally disabled man fatally shot by an off-duty LAPD officer inside a Costco in Corona in June 2019.
- $11.8 million for James Simpson, an elderly man who sustained a traumatic brain injury after being struck by a traffic signal pole toppled in an accident caused by an LAPD detective who ran a red light.
The council approved all three settlements unanimously.
In a statement released through their attorneys, Corado’s family members said they would “keep her memory alive always.”
“Nothing will bring Mely back to us and we are forever heartbroken by her violent death caused by those who are meant to protect and serve the community,” the statement read. “We hope this settlement sends a loud message to LAPD and all law enforcement agencies across the country that officers must account for their surroundings when firing their guns.”
The family’s lawyers called the settlement the largest pretrial payout ever in an LAPD shooting case.
“Mely’s death was entirely preventable if the officers had followed their training and accounted for their background while firing,” said attorney Neil Gehlawat. “Officers must look at the dangers posed to bystanders when using deadly force, and the officers here failed to do that.”
Corado was fatally shot on July 21, 2018, as two police officers pursued Gene Evin Atkins, suspected of shooting his grandmother and his girlfriend and then taking the younger woman hostage. Atkins led police on a lengthy pursuit in his grandmother’s car, during which he shot at officers, ran red lights and collided with multiple vehicles, prosecutors alleged.
The chase ended at the Trader Joe’s on Hyperion Avenue. Atkins stopped the car and ran toward the store, which was crowded with Saturday afternoon shoppers.
Atkins shot at the officers, who returned fire as he entered the store. One of the officer’s bullets struck Corado, killing her. Atkins was wounded in the arm, but he held shoppers and employees hostage inside the store for three hours before surrendering. His trial is pending.
The LAPD came under harsh criticism for shooting a bystander, which then-Chief Michel Moore described as “every officer’s worst nightmare.”
In the French case, the $17.7 million payout is roughly the same amount awarded by a federal jury in 2021 after Officer Salvador Sanchez was found to have used excessive and unreasonable force. Sanchez, who was later fired, was off-duty when he and French got into a confrontation in a line to sample sausages.
Sanchez’s attorney claimed during the federal trial that he was knocked to the ground during the encounter and believed that French was armed. Sanchez’s rounds killed French and wounded his mother and father.
The Police Commission found that Sanchez violated department policy. Sanchez also faced criminal manslaughter and assault charges, but the prosecution ended in a mistrial earlier this year. A call to the French family’s attorney went unreturned on Friday.
Simpson sued the city after sustaining numerous injuries when LAPD detective Alex Pozo ran a red light in Chino while driving a city-owned vehicle in August 2020. The driver of an SUV swerved to avoid colliding with Pozo and crashed into a traffic pole, which fell on top of Simpson, 70, as he walked on the sidewalk.
The city council voted not to approve a settlement for an LAPD sergeant who sued after being repeatedly disciplined over controversial posts on his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts. The sergeant, Joel Sydanmaa, accused the LAPD of singling him out for punishment for expressing political viewpoints they didn’t like.
“We rejected their suggestion, and we asked them to go to trial,” Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said.
Sydanmaa’s attorney, Caleb Mason, said he was “disappointed” that city officials apparently backtracked on what he described as a signed settlement agreement.
“My client waited three-and-a-half years for a trial date and then he agreed to vacate that trial date two weeks before his trial, based on the word of high level city attorney officials — he trusted them,” Mason said.
Friday’s payouts add to the more than $171 million in taxpayer money spent since 2019 to resolve legal claims accusing the LAPD of wrongful death, excessive force, negligence, discrimination and more, according to records from the L.A. City Tttorney’s office.
That figure could grow because the city is appealing several sizable payouts, including the $4 million that a jury awarded to then-Capt. Lillian Carranza, who sued over a nude photograph that was doctored to look like her and shared with coworkers.