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The family of Cody Chavez, the 33-year-old who was fatally shot by two Pleasanton Police officers outside of his girlfriend’s apartment, recently settled their civil rights lawsuit against the city – a few days before the Alameda County District Attorney’s office cleared the two officers involved of any criminal wrongdoing, an attorney for the family said.
James Cook, an associate attorney with the law offices of Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy, confirmed to the Weekly last Friday that the lawsuit, which sought damages on behalf of the daughter of Chavez, was settled last Monday morning (Dec. 2).
Cook said the settlement will remain confidential until “all details are finalized.”
“The settlement allows both parties to put the incident behind them and move forward,” Cook told the Weekly.
Pleasanton City Attorney Dan Sodergren declined to confirm the settlement or comment on any other details related to it.
PPD first responded to a domestic violence call at the Galloway Apartments at 1 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2022, which is where they attempted to contact Chavez. Officers tried to enter the apartment after receiving a report from a woman in a romantic relationship with Chavez who said he had beaten her and attempted to smother her with a pillow the previous night.
Chavez, who was a San Jose resident at the time, refused to answer the door and locked it after officers attempted to gain access, which led to a three-hour-long standoff, according to investigators.
It was later discovered that Chavez was holding a knife while he barricaded himself inside the apartment.
After failed negotiation attempts, officers obtained an arrest warrant and deployed both a wheeled robot and drone to force Chavez outside. As he exited, officers shot him with less lethal rounds, which made him drop the knife.
But right after, he got back up and reportedly began moving toward two officers before PPD officers Brian Jewell and Mario Guillermo opened fire.
Chavez was pronounced dead at the scene.
Jewell and Guillermo told investigators they believed Chavez intended to kill officers. Since the incident, the District Attorney’s office has investigated the officer-involved shooting twice.
The county prosecutors’ office, under former DA Nancy O’Malley, initially cleared the two officers of criminal liability in December 2022, right before now-ousted DA Pamela Price took over the following month. Price had brought up that particular shooting during her campaign and once in office she reopened the investigation.
However, the second investigation into the case ordered by Price concluded last week as one of her last announcements before leaving office was that the two officers will not face criminal charges.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, Officers Jewell and Guillermo had a reasonable belief that Mr. Chavez posed an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to their fellow officers,” according to a supplemental report of the investigation from the DA’s office.
Despite clearing the officers, the DA’s office criticized how the incident was ultimately handled.
In its report, the DA’s office states, “This tragedy provides a learning opportunity for improvements to public safety and policing for the Pleasanton Police Department and all of Alameda County law enforcement agencies.”
Apart from the “overmilitarized police response,” the report states that the PPD failed to reach out to mental health professionals during the incident despite knowing Chavez had mental health issues.
That point was also mentioned in the initial lawsuit by the family that was filed on Sept. 20, 2022.
“On the date of the incident at approximately 11:51 a.m., Mr. Chavez was at his girlfriend’s apartment,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. Chavez struggled with mental health, and began to act abnormally. In response, Chavez’s girlfriend called 911 to seek help for Mr. Chavez.”
The lawsuit adds, “Cody Chavez might be here today if not for the Pleasanton Police Department’s policy violations and overmilitarized response to a domestic violence complaint with no active safety threat,” the DA’s report states. “Had the officers not further agitated Mr. Chavez, even after Jane Doe told crisis negotiators that Mr. Chavez was experiencing mental health issues and was most likely intoxicated, his death might have been avoided.”
