Richmond To Pay $1.5 Million To Parents Of Man Beaten To Death By Police

The City of Richmond, CA, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by the parents of Uriah Dach, a 26-year-old mentally ill man whom Richmond police were supposed to transport to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation on April 22, 2008. Instead, when Dach retreated into his bedroom, Officers tased Dach for 72 seconds straight, followed by several more tasings for a total of 95 out of 99 seconds. Officers also severely beat Dach with batons and pepper sprayed him repeatedly. Dach was trying to get away from the officers, but never struck any of them. No officer was injured by Dach. Dach was an obese man, weighing over 350 pounds.

Officers tackled Dach to the ground in front of his house where they piled on his back, continued beating him, and handcuffed him. They left him laying on his stomach until he suffocated. Although some officers claimed that they turned him onto his side, paramedics and other eyewitnesses confirmed that Dach was left face down.

Officers denied ever striking Dach on the head. Yet officers had no explanation for multiple areas of blunt force trauma found on Dach’s head by forensic pathologists. An independent pathologist hired to conduct a second autopsy by his family testified that she observed severe blunt force trauma consistent with “at least ten blows to the head.” Plaintiffs’ counsel, Haddad & Sherwin, retained renowned forensic pathologist Michael Baden, M.D. to review the autopsy findings. Dr. Baden concluded that the officers ultimately caused Uriah Dach to die from asphyxia, brought on by the cumulative effects of the pepper spray, Tasing, blunt force injuries, and prolonged face-down restraint.

This federal civil rights lawsuit was brought by Uriah Dach’s parents, Timothy Dach of Alhambra, California, and Elaine Dach of Richmond, California. The defendants are the City of Richmond and Officers Christopher Decious, John Bruce, Timothy Brian Gard, and Sgt. Louie Tirona. The case was set to go to trial next May.

“This was one of the most brutal police beat downs I’ve ever seen,” said one of the family’s attorneys, Michael Haddad. “The officers’ killing of this mentally ill man is indefensible. They should have been prosecuted.”