Las Vegas police settle lawsuit over inmate’s death for $363K
More than five years after an inmate died following a struggle with county jail officers, Las Vegas police have agreed to pay $363,000 to two of the man’s relatives.
The money is meant for his adult daughter, Carmen Solano, who spearheaded the civil case, and his widow, Ima Flores-Zelaya. It also will support his four other children as heirs.
The Metropolitan Police Committee on Fiscal Affairs approved the settlement at its Monday meeting with no discussion.
“We are glad to see this years-long litigation come to a satisfactory conclusion for all involved,” Mitchell Bisson, an attorney for the family, said in an emailed statement.
The family previously reached a separate confidential settlement with NaphCare Inc., which was contracted to provide medical services to Clark County jail inmates.
Luis Solano, 38, died at University Medical Center in March 2013, more than a week after the three-minute struggle with corrections officers at the Clark County Detention Center. The coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide from complications of “positional asphyxia” because of police restraint procedures.
“Although nothing will bring Luis Solano back, this settlement — along with the previous settlement the family had with NaphCare related to this incident — will help provide for Luis’s five children and help bring closure to this tragic chapter of their lives,” Bisson said in his statement.
A few months after his death, Solano’s widow, who was pregnant at the time, and his daughter Carmen filed the lawsuit. They accused Metropolitan Police Department officers of beating and suffocating Solano after they misinterpreted his reaction to a seizure.
Solano was booked into the jail four days before the February 2013 struggle. Video played in a public hearing nearly a year later first showed him pacing within a common area of a medical housing unit, gesturing wildly.
For a moment, he disappeared off-screen, where he reportedly entered a restricted area near the guards’ control room. When he reappeared, several officers — who already had grabbed him — dragged him to the back of the room and forced him face-first to the floor.
He resisted and told officers several times that he could not breathe. When the struggle ended, Solano was unconscious.
Bisson has described his death as “Las Vegas’ Eric Garner story.”
Garner died in New York in 2014 after a struggle with police on Staten Island. His last words, “I can’t breathe,” were caught on video and used in national protests against police brutality.
A year after Solano died, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson announced that the four officers in question would not face criminal charges.
“A thorough investigation indicated that officers did not use excessive force in their efforts to restrain him,” Wolfson said in a statement at the time.
Police went on to fight Solano’s family in court for years, arguing that the officers should be immune from civil complaints based on their actions while on the job. A federal district judge in Nevada rejected those claims.
After Metro attorneys appealed that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the court in 2017 upheld the lower court’s decision, and the case continued. The settlement was reached in July.
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby.
Similar circumstance
In May 2017, Tashii Brown died after former Metropolitan Police Department officer Kenneth Lopera shocked him with a Taser seven times, punched him in the head repeatedly, and placed him in a chokehold for more than a minute. The coroner also ruled his death a homicide caused by ashphyxia because of police restraint.
Lopera was arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter and oppression under color of office after the encounter and retired from the police force. But after a grand jury decided not to indict him, the Clark County district attorney’s office announced it would stop pursuing charges.
Brown would not have faced charges if he survived, police have said. His mother continues to pursue a federal lawsuit over his death.
