By Thaddeus Miller
The Fresno Bee
FRESNO, Calif. — The family of a man who suffocated when Fresno and Fresno County first responders sat on top of him while he was restrained agreed to a $10 million settlement before its wrongful death case reached trial.
Joseph Perez, 41, pleaded with Fresno police officers and Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies in the moments leading up to his death on May 10, 2017, saying, “Let me redeem myself,” and, “I can’t breathe,” a video previously released by the family showed. American Ambulance paramedics instructed an officer to sit on the backboard that had been placed on top of Perez, who was face-down on the ground.
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Perez stopped moving in less than a minute and the Fresno County Coroner’s Office ruled he died by homicide by asphyxiation. The coroner noted that Perez had a high amount of methamphetamine in his system.
The family on Thursday announced the settlement, which included $6 million from the city of Fresno, $4 million from Fresno County and an undisclosed amount from a “private ambulance company,” according to Neil Gehlawat, one of the Los Angeles -based attorneys from Taylor & Ring who represented the family.
“I think they understand this record settlement of sort of being an acknowledgement of the wrongdoing that occurred, and not having to sit through the pain of a multi-week trial not knowing, of course, how things would turn out,” he said.
Gehlawat noted he was not allowed to name the private ambulance company as part of the settlement. American Ambulance was named in the court filings. The law firm said it believes the pre-trial settlement was a record amount for an incident involving Fresno police.
The Fresno City Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that it had no comment. The county released a statement through spokesperson Sonja Dosti, who confirmed the settlement after “good faith negotiations in mediation.”
Gehlawat said the family decided to settle after nine years, and feels relieved.
“I think they wanted to see justice and accountability, and I give them a lot of credit because I’m not sure that a lot of other families could have muscled through nine years of litigation to get to the finish line,” he said.
American Ambulance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit cited qualified immunity in its findings in favor of first responders in 2024, upholding an earlier court’s ruling. One judge wrote in her opinion that a reasonable jury could have found officers violated Joseph Perez’s Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.
That ruling kept the civil case out of federal court, so the family sued in state court.
The asphyxiation of Joseph Perez
Perez, an air conditioning repairman, was married and had two children, his family previously told The Fresno Bee. They said he was the oldest of five children and loved camping, music and dancing. Perez was killed within two miles of his home, his family said.
Dispatchers received a call about 10:30 a.m. on May 10, 2017, about a man “acting strange, running and yelling” on Palm Avenue near Santa Fe Drive, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has said.
Fresno police patrol officers were the first to encounter Perez before sheriff’s deputies arrived. “Members of both agencies contacted the man and detained him,” a sheriff’s news release said about the incident the day after it occurred.
Because of Perez’s mental state, law enforcement officers called an ambulance. The news release did not mention Perez being handcuffed or give details about what happened next. But “during the drive to the hospital, the suspect died,” the news release said.
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