Man alleges Tacoma police officers choked him unconscious after he reported hit and run
A federal lawsuit alleges Tacoma police officers used a chokehold on a hit-and-run victim in 2020 which rendered him unconscious and led to a seizure when he woke up.
Jerald S. Galvan had followed the driver who hit his car to the Krispy Creme parking lot near the Tacoma Mall on Feb. 14, 2020, according to the lawsuit, first filed in Pierce County Superior Court last month. When officers arrived, they asked Galvan about his gun, the lawsuit states.
“Mr. Galvan told them that he did not have his gun on him” and then lifted his shirt to show an empty gun holster, according to the complaint. Police then tackled Galvan, placed him in a chokehold and handcuffed him, the lawsuit states.
As Galvan woke up, his body began convulsing, and emergency medical personnel treated him at the scene, according to the complaint.
The city denied Galvan’s tort claim — a precursor to a lawsuit — in December. Attorneys for the city of Tacoma filed to remove the case to federal court on Monday. Spokespeople for the city and Police Department declined to comment on the active litigation and said they did not know whether the incident was investigated internally.
The lawsuit alleges assault, negligence and civil rights violations. It seeks unspecified monetary damages for medical fees, court costs, lost wages and pain and suffering, as well as punitive damages.
“This unwanted and unlawful physical touching caused Mr. Galvan to suffer great anxiety due to the assault and the battery,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit does not explain why police thought Galvan had a gun, and Galvan’s attorney, Harold Franklin, declined to comment Wednesday when contacted by The News Tribune.
The Tacoma Police Department prohibited chokeholds at the time of the incident but allowed vascular neck restraints, which are meant to restrict blood flow to the brain and cause temporary unconsciousness.
Then-Police Chief Don Ramsdell banned all neck restraints outside life-threatening situations in June 2020 shortly after the medical examiner ruled the death of Manuel Ellis a homicide from oxygen deprivation. Officers had used a neck restraint, shocked him with a Taser, placed a spithood over his head and hogtied him, records show. Police data from later that year showed officers had used a neck restraint once before in 2018.
The state Legislature banned all neck restraints in 2021, citing accidental chokeholds and the potential for deadly consequences.
Ellis died about three weeks after police reportedly detained Galvan. Tacoma officer Ron Komarovsky is named as a defendant in lawsuits related to both cases, along with two other unrelated and ongoing lawsuits. Public records posted online show he was hired by the Police Department as a transfer from an unspecified agency in October 2018.
A second officer is identified in the Galvan case by last name and badge number, in addition to multiple unnamed officers.
In their ongoing 2021 federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit, Ellis’ family alleged Komarovsky helped restrain Ellis on the ground before he died. The state Attorney General’s Office charged three other Tacoma police officers with killing Ellis.
Last summer, a man representing himself filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging Komarovsky and another officer racially-profiled him and then wrongfully arrested him for driving under the influence after he caused a car crash in January 2021, according to court papers.
A second lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court last month alleges Komarovsky T-boned a couple’s car at an uncontrolled intersection in November 2021 and didn’t have his headlights on around 5:30 p.m. Court papers show the city of Tacoma denied the couple’s tort claim last October, alleging Komarovsky had the right of way and that the other car’s driver failed to yield.
About four months before the lawsuit in the Ellis case, the police union for rank-and-file officers recognized Komarovsky for saving an unresponsive man from a burning car after witnesses reported there was no one inside.
