A federal civil jury issued a verdict Monday clearing three Richmond police officers of any liability in the 2021 in-custody death of 47-year-old Ivan Gutzalenko of Concord.
The jury came back with its ruling less than two hours after hearing closing arguments in the trial, which began Feb. 2 in San Francisco.
Ben Nisenbaum, the family’s attorney, declined to comment. The Richmond Police Officers Association (RPOA), the officers’ union, did not return requests for comment by publication time.
Gutzalenko, a nurse and father of two, died on March 10, 2021 after officers Tom Tran, Cedric Tagorda and Mark Hall, who is now retired, found him in distress at San Pablo Avenue near Solano Avenue. Witnesses had reported that Gutzalenko was acting erratically and bleeding from a cut while walking in and out of several nearby Richmond businesses.
Gutzalenko was ultimately handcuffed and given a sedative known by its brand name Versed by American Medical Response (AMR) paramedic Damon Richardson. He became unresponsive and was pronounced dead at an Oakland hospital about 90 minutes later.
His family later told investigators that he had struggled for years with substance abuse and mental health issues.
The complaint, filed by his estranged wife, Honey Gutzalenko, alleged that the city of Richmond maintained unconstitutional policies that permitted excessive force and failed to train officers on positional asphyxia risks. It initially also named AMR and Richardson but settled with those parties for an undisclosed amount two days before the trial started, Nisenbaum told Richmondside.
The trial saw the three officers, along with a number of medical experts and family members, give often-emotion testimony, with the plaintiffs arguing that officer Tran’s knee put pressure on Gutzalenko’s torso while the defense argued that Gutzalenko’s methamphetamine addiction and poor physical condition were the cause of the medical distress he was in before the officers even touched him.
During his closing arguments Monday, Nisenbaum pointed to the officers’ actions and how, though Gutzalenko was later found to have methamphetamine in his bloodstream, the drug was just a facet of his death. But defense attorney Kevin Gilbert called for the jury to see how the plaintiffs “failed to meet the burden of proof” and that the officers were following proper protocols by trying to handcuff an uncooperative Gutzalenko so that medical responders could treat him.
“We’re here because the defendants, and especially Officer Tran, killed a man,” Nisenbaum said, referencing Dr. Arnold Josselson’s testimony that Gutzalenko died from prone restraint asphyxia that caused lethal acidosis. “Who conducted that restraint? Well you’re looking at them.”
Gilbert told the jury that although the Gutzalenko case was a tragedy, the plaintiffs misrepresented the facts in the case and “never pointed to any specific evidence” that supported their arguments.
“What the evidence showed was that there were no blows, no knee strikes, no hits, none of that,” Gilbert said. “The officers were using holds and leverage to try and help Mr. Gutzalenko get in handcuffs and get medical care. (There was) no other force.”
