PITTSBURG — The city has agreed to pay $132,500 to three family members who filed an excessive force lawsuit alleging two officers were unjustly violent with them and arrested them on “demonstrably false” charges.
The plaintiffs, Latricia Bengard and her two children, Corrie Gibson and a boy who was 15 at the time, sued the city of Pittsburg in May 2017, naming officer Michael Creighton and Jonathan Elmore as defendants. The suit alleged Creighton had used a stun gun on the boy twice, and that Elmore knocked Bengard and Gibson — pregnant at the time — to the ground, then used a stun gun on Bengard as well.
Police were responding to a domestic disturbance call, and said in court filings that Bengard’s boyfriend had visible injuries that he attributed to her. The boy suffered an injury on his chest due to the stun gun, but has since recovered, according to court records.
Pittsburg responded to the allegations in court by saying the officers had acted lawfully, that the boy had charged at police before an officer stunned him, and that Gibson had been acting aggressively and swearing at the officers. A Pittsburg police spokesman declined to comment on the settlement.
Two months after the June 2016 incident, Bengard and Gibson were hit with a misdemeanor resisting arrest charge. The charge was dropped in January 2017, per a request from county prosecutors, according to court records. The deputy district attorney who worked on the case was unavailable for comment.
Per the terms of the settlement, the boy and Bengard both received $50,000, while Gibson received $32,500.
Accounts of the incident differed. The plaintiffs contended that around 1 p.m. on June 20, 2016, Creighton and Elmore responded to a domestic disturbance report on the 700 block of Olivewood Drive in Pittsburg, involving Bengard and her boyfriend. It says when the boy approached the scene, officers attacked him “without provocation,” then used a stun gun on him again when he was in a “prone and defensive” position.
It claimed that Elmore knocked Gibson the ground while she asked police to provide water and medical aid to her brother. When Bengard “attempted to intervene,” Elmore pushed her to the ground too, then used a stun gun on her as she was walking away.
Attorneys for Pittsburg police, meanwhile, wrote that the boy had “charged toward (Creighton), in a rapid and aggressive manner, yelling with his fists clenched.” They wrote Creighton deployed his stun gun “in self-defense” after the boy ignored his commands, and that Elmore had “put his hands out in front of him to defend himself” after Gibson yelled, “I don’t give an (expletive)” and charged at him.
Police said Elmore pushed Bengard after she scratched him with her fingernails, then used a stun gun on her when she began walking toward him after being knocked down.
A public records act request for officer body camera footage related to the incident, filed Friday by Bay Area News Group, is still pending.