A jury acquitted San Rafael police officer Brandon Nail of all charges last week in the beating of a local man, Julio Jimenez Lopez, stopped for drinking in public in 2022.
The courtroom was full of spectators as a Marin County court clerk read the verdicts for the two felony counts: not guilty of beating a person under color of authority and not guilty of filing a false police report, bringing more than four weeks of trial and jury deliberations to a close.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Sun broke the news that San Rafael agreed to pay Jimenez Lopez $999,000 to settle the federal civil lawsuit he and his wife filed against the city and the two officers involved in the use of force. Jimenez Lopez claimed that he suffered serious injuries during the incident, including a broken nose, a concussion and a torn labrum in his shoulder that required surgery.
How did a 12-person jury find Nail not guilty while the city employing him determined that the man he beat deserves almost a million bucks? Interestingly, San Rafael and Jimenez Lopez reached their settlement agreement on Aug. 20, almost two months before the jury in the criminal trial rendered their verdict on Oct. 14.
According to San Rafael’s city attorney, Rob Epstein, the parties in the civil lawsuit kept the settlement agreement under wraps because it could have influenced the outcome of Nail’s criminal trial. Neither Epstein nor Theo Emison, one of Jimenez Lopez’s attorneys, would say whether the delay in announcing the settlement stemmed from a court’s directive or an agreement between the parties to the lawsuit. Payments from public funds are a matter of public record.
Since the criminal case’s jury members were unaware of the substantial civil settlement, it certainly didn’t sway their decision to acquit Nail of all charges. The two outcomes do appear incongruent at first glance.
No one has disputed that a police use of force incident occurred on July 27, 2022, after Daisy Mazariegos, then a San Rafael police officer, approached Jimenez Lopez and two male friends for drinking in public on Windward Way in the Canal neighborhood. Videos from Mazariegos’ and Nail’s body-worn cameras show the violent encounter and the moments preceding it.
Under Mazariegos’ direction, the men sat on the sidewalk while she questioned them, although Jimenez Lopez stood when instructed to get his identification. Nail, who had just arrived as back up, told Jimenez Lopez to, “Sit the fuck down.”
And so began the unnecessary escalation, according to criminal prosecutor Geoff Iida. Jimenez Lopez sat, then stood again as he tried to explain that he needed to get up to retrieve his ID from his pocket. The two officers grabbed his wrists to place him in handcuffs. Nail did a leg sweep maneuver, tripping Jimenez Lopez, causing all three to tumble to the ground. In less than 60 seconds, Jimenez Lopez was lying face down on the pavement in a pool of his own blood.
Both the prosecution and defense relied heavily on the videos during the trial. Iida described Jimenez Lopez as cooperative but needing clarity about commands. Defense attorney Julia Fox disagreed, maintaining that he did not comply, and the officers were well within their rights to use force to handcuff him.
“Mr. Iida would have you believe that Officer Mazariegos encountered Mahatma Gandhi on Windward Way,” Fox told the jury.
Frame-by-frame video playback showed that as the three fell to the ground, a few of Jimenez Lopez’s fingers from one hand grasped Nail’s vest. The prosecution asserted that the man who had complied with all commands simply reacted to falling. The defense stated this move prompted Nail to punch Jimenez Lopez in the nose because of safety concerns—the officer’s vest held weapons, including a taser, baton and pepper spray.
Nail’s assault defense boiled down to one question: Were the officer’s actions reasonable? And that standard applies not to the jury’s perception of reasonableness, but to another officer in a similar situation. Oscar O’Con, Nail’s then-supervisor, testified that his subordinate behaved reasonably.
The count of falsifying a police report essentially hung on whether Nail believed that Jimenez Lopez attempted to place him in a headlock and struck him about the head. While the prosecutor claimed none of this occurred based on the video footage, the cameras were blocked for a few milliseconds during the tumble, providing Fox enough ammunition to say it could have happened. Additionally, Mazariegos’ baton briefly touched Nail’s neck, which he could have mistaken for an aggressive action by Jimenez Lopez, the defense attorney opined.
Experts weighed in on both sides. Ultimately, the jury decided that the prosecution did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
At the request of the jury, Judge Kevin Murphy, who presided over the trial, agreed to seal the jurors’ names. All jury members, except the foreman, declined the Pacific Sun’s request for comment.
“Everyone walked in [the jury room] with a different mindset but an open mind,” the unidentified foreman said. “For a month, we didn’t get to talk about it. Then we were very thoughtful about looking at the law and applying the evidence. That guided us to the verdict.”
Had Jimenez Lopez’s civil case reached trial, the standard of proof would have been lower than in the criminal trial. Rather than beyond a reasonable doubt, a civil jury would have considered the preponderance of evidence.
“I think, from the city’s perspective, Mr. Nail’s conduct was wrongful, and Mr. Lopez got injured,” San Rafael’s attorney Epstein said in an interview with the Pacific Sun. “That continues to be the city’s position on those issues.”
However, Epstein also said this wasn’t the main driver in deciding to settle the claim for $999,000. He explained that a jury’s verdict for the plaintiff could leave the city on the hook to pay Jimenez Lopez’s attorneys fees—and four lawyers from two law firms represented him and his wife.
“If there had been a verdict for the Lopezes, even if the amount was substantially below the $999,000 settlement number, I am confident that his attorneys would have been seeking an attorney’s fees award from [U.S. District Court] Judge [Vince] Chhabria well in excess of $1,000,000, separate and distinct from any damages award,” Epstein continued.
Those following the Jimenez Lopez assault may remember yet another legal proceeding stemming from the incident. After the San Rafael Police Department terminated Nail for violating department policies, he contested the decision in arbitration and won. With the criminal acquittal on all charges and the arbitrator’s binding decision on his employment, San Rafael issued a statement that it “has no choice but to reinstate Nail” as a police officer.
The different outcomes in the criminal and civil cases involving the beating of Jimenez Lopez in 2022 seem to demonstrate the adage that “The wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine.”
This should be under the opinion section. Whatever happened to unbiased journalism?
What here is the writer’s opinion? Literally every opinion is directly attributed to the person making the argument, whether it’s the prosecutor, defense attorney or city attorney. The only observation the writer makes is the factual one that civil settlement and jury’s findings on criminality don’t appear to align, and then uses multiple sources to explain why. Where’s the bias?
And the moral of the story is it’s ok for the cops to beat up people when they are not resisting. Such a shame! Thanks Nikki for your solid reporting on this.