The Sonoma County supervisors met in closed session today to discuss and/or vote on a settlement reached in federal court last November in a case that involved Esa Wroth, a man who charged he was Tasered more than 20 times during his arrest and booking at the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Center in Dec. 2014. Wroth said his civil rights were violated as a result of the multiple Taserings, and sued the county. All charges against Wroth were subsequently dropped.
A media liaison with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, which heard the case, says that the latest court filing, a so-called “minute entry,” was on Nov. 20 and was a “settlement conference” with parties in the case, the plaintiff’s and defendant’s attorneys and Wroth himself. The court filing from Nov. 20 indicates that the case was settled, some kind of a deal was struck, and subject to the review and approval of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. An audiotape of the proceedings spells out the details of the settlement arrangement, and I’m trying to get hold of that audio proceeding to suss the details of the proposed settlement.
A copy of the Nov. 20 filing provided to the Fishing Report reads: “Case settled. Settlement put on the record subject to the contingency of approval. The approval process will take approximately 30 days.”
Dec. 20 has come and gone—that’s 30 days. Today is Jan. 12 and this is the first time the Wroth case has been on the Sonoma County Supervisors’ agenda since the Nov. 20 settlement.
Attorneys with the Sonoma County counsel’s office were not immediately available for comment, nor were attorneys for Wroth.
