LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who was rendered unconscious and arrested by two Solano County sheriff’s deputies in Northern California during a 2020 family trip has reached a $17 million settlement with the county, her lawyer announced Monday.
Nakia Porter had filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Solano County Sheriff’s Office deputies of violating state and federal civil rights laws through “unlawful seizure, assault and excessive force.”
Porter, her father, and her three young children were driving home at night on Aug. 6, 2020, when they pulled off the road. Porter, who is Black, had already stepped out of the car when the deputies arrived with lights flashing. She told them they were merely switching drivers and would soon be on their way, according to the lawsuit.
Body camera footage captured the deputies drawing their guns on Porter before slamming her to the pavement while handcuffing her along a rural road in Dixon. Her father, Joe Powell, was also handcuffed and briefly detained.
Porter spent the night in jail on suspicion of resisting arrest but was never formally charged.
“What happened to Ms. Porter and her family should never happen in our society,” said Porter’s attorney Yasin Almadani in a news release announcing the settlement.
The Solano County Sheriff’s Department and a county spokesperson did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment Monday evening.
The lawsuit also alleged that the deputies falsified their arrest reports, claiming Porter had resisted and misrepresenting the duration she was unconscious.
Body camera footage shows Porter stating, “For those that are listening, I am not resisting. You are not reading me my rights.”
The deputies then pushed Porter against the squad car and onto the pavement while attempting to handcuff her. One deputy can be heard shouting, “Put your hands behind your back. Get on your stomach.”
Porter claimed the deputies punched her in the head and stomach, knelt on her back, and pulled her hair, causing her to lose consciousness shortly after being handcuffed.
“I think she’s out,” one deputy is heard saying on the recording.
Porter, who is 5-foot-2 (1.6 meters) and 125 pounds (57 kilograms), said she was dragged unconscious to the back of the squad car and regained consciousness about five minutes later.
“These deputies treated us less than human and left a void we are still struggling to fill,” Porter said in the news release. “I cannot describe what this type of experience does to a person, but I wish it on no one.”
