Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
$10 Million Settlement Reached in Police Shooting of Lake Tahoe Vacationer
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
December 2, 2020

Share

SAN FRANCISCO — A Northern California county has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle a lawsuit by a Silicon Valley software engineer who was having a mental health crisis when a deputy shot him, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Placer County agreed to pay Samuel Kolb, 50, and his family $9.9 million to settle a lawsuit the family filed after a deputy shot him twice on Jan. 14, 2018, inside a North Lake Tahoe rental cabin where Kolb and his teenage son were vacationing, Kolb said.

“There’s a measure of relief in not having to go through this and not having to put my family through any more legal challenges. But I would trade all the money plus interest to have my old life back, to not have gone through this and put my family through this, to have full use of my body. No amount of money makes up for that,” Kolb said.

Kolb and his son traveled from their home in San Mateo for a ski trip in Lake Tahoe and were staying at a cabin in Carnelian Bay when Kolb woke up before dawn and began pacing around the cabin. He woke up his then 16-year-old son and asked him to get medical help, Ronald Kaye, the Kolbs’ attorney, said in a federal lawsuit he filed to dismiss Monday. A federal court Tuesday granted their stipulation for dismissal.

Kolb’s son called 911 and reported his father was acting odd and was “in a dream-like state,” according to court documents. He told the dispatcher his father had a history of temporal lobe epilepsy and that they had smoked marijuana together before going to bed. Temporal lobe epilepsy can cause people to feel a sudden sense of fear or anxiety, anger or sadness, though a lawsuit filed by Kaye says Kolb had not had a similar incident in about 15 years.

Honeycutt Believed His Life Was in Danger After Kolb Stabbed Him With a Sharp Instrument

Kolb’s son “did not believe, nor did he represent, that his father presented any danger to his safety — he simply requested medical help as he observed his father suffering from a mental health episode,” Kaye said in court documents.

When Placer County Deputy Curtis Honeycutt arrived, he found Kolb and his son standing outside the cabin in the cold. Kolb was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt and pajama bottoms and Honeycutt instructed them to go back inside instead of securing Kolb in the back of the patrol car to await mental health intervention, the lawsuit said.

Once inside, Kolb grabbed a carving fork. In response to Kolb’s raising the fork, Honeycutt began “repeatedly, unreasonably and unjustifiably discharging his office issued firearm,” shattering one of Kolb’s vertebrae, the lawsuit said.

After the incident, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted on its Facebook page that Honeycutt believed his life was in danger after Kolb stabbed him with a sharp instrument. His bulletproof vest protected him from injury but when Kolb tried to stab him a second time, the deputy used his service weapon to end the attack, the department said.

Kolb’s son later testified he never saw his father attack Honeycutt and forensic evidence showed the deputy’s vest had no signs of a stabbing, Kolb said.

At the Time of the Shooting, Kolb Was Working as a Senior Director at Survey Monkey

Detectives without training on interviewing minors who witnessed traumatic events questioned Kolb’s son without asking for the authorization of his mother, who was driving from Silicon Valley to reunite with him. They also secretly recorded him while he spoke on his cellphone with family members to obtain incriminating information against his father, the lawsuit alleged.

Angela Musallam, a spokeswoman for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, said Tuesday that the sheriff’s office “does not have anything further to say about Mr. Kolb’s case.”

At the time of the shooting, Kolb was working as a senior director at Survey Monkey. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, which is a felony, and felony child endangerment. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense of brandishing a deadly weapon other than a firearm “in order to spare my family further legal trouble and spare my son having to testify and worry that he held my life in his hands,” Kolb said.

Honeycutt shot Kolb once on the left side of his torso and once in his back. Kolb now lacks bowel and bladder control, cannot engage in normal sexual activity and lives with chronic pain.

An engineering manager at Facebook, he is volunteering his free time to press for legislative changes to California’s blanket immunity for police officers and to reform policing in the country.

“This is a morally bankrupt and corrupt system that is bent on one thing, which is protecting the power of the entrenched police unions and this power structure,” he said.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

His Gang Name Is ‘Goer.’ Now Fresno County Man Is Going to Prison for 20 Years

DON'T MISS

Missing Woman Found Dead in Fresno County Canal Identified

DON'T MISS

Co-Conspirator Sentenced in Fraud Involving Loans to Bitwise

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Stephanie Marie Zamarripa

DON'T MISS

Why Trump Is Mad at ‘Sleazebag’ Leonard Leo

DON'T MISS

Trump Amplifies Outlandish Robot Biden Conspiracy Theory

DON'T MISS

Madera County Authorities Seek Public’s Help Locating Missing At-Risk Man

DON'T MISS

Mattel Is Combining Film and Television Units to Create Mattel Studios

DON'T MISS

Campbell’s Co. Says Sales Rise as More Americans Cook at Home

DON'T MISS

US Judge Blocks Trump From Nixing Union Bargaining for TSA Officers

UP NEXT

Trans Athlete in Political Storm Earns, and Shares, First Place in Event

UP NEXT

California Plans to Ban Most Plants Within 5 Feet of Homes for Wildfire Safety

UP NEXT

American Doctors Are Moving to Canada To Escape the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

Trump Trade War Has Already Had Huge Effect on California Ports

UP NEXT

How Gentrification Is Killing the Bus: California’s Rising Rents Are Pushing Out Commuters

UP NEXT

Loretta Swit, Emmy-winner Who Played Houlihan on Pioneering TV Series ‘M.A.S.H.,’ Has Died at 87

UP NEXT

Medicaid Work Rules Could Leave a Million Californians With No Health Insurance

UP NEXT

California Lawmaker Won’t Be Charged After Citation for Suspicion of Impaired Driving

UP NEXT

1 in 4 US Children Have Parents With Substance Use Disorder, Study Finds

UP NEXT

Dozens Sickened in Expanding Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Recalled Cucumbers

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Stephanie Marie Zamarripa

41 minutes ago

Why Trump Is Mad at ‘Sleazebag’ Leonard Leo

57 minutes ago

Trump Amplifies Outlandish Robot Biden Conspiracy Theory

1 hour ago

Madera County Authorities Seek Public’s Help Locating Missing At-Risk Man

2 hours ago

Mattel Is Combining Film and Television Units to Create Mattel Studios

2 hours ago

Campbell’s Co. Says Sales Rise as More Americans Cook at Home

2 hours ago

US Judge Blocks Trump From Nixing Union Bargaining for TSA Officers

3 hours ago

Madera County’s Rolling Hills Area Wildfire Prompts Evacuation Advisories

4 hours ago

Judge Rules Next Fresno County Sheriff, DA Elections Are in 2028

4 hours ago

Yarbrough Shines as Yankees Avoid Sweep With Win Over Dodgers

4 hours ago

His Gang Name Is ‘Goer.’ Now Fresno County Man Is Going to Prison for 20 Years

Juan Carlos Ruiz Jr., aka “Goer,” of Coalinga, received a 20-year prison sentence for distributing methamphetamine and trafficking in ...

9 minutes ago

9 minutes ago

His Gang Name Is ‘Goer.’ Now Fresno County Man Is Going to Prison for 20 Years

26 minutes ago

Missing Woman Found Dead in Fresno County Canal Identified

41 minutes ago

Co-Conspirator Sentenced in Fraud Involving Loans to Bitwise

Stephanie Marie Zamarripa is Valley Crime Stoppers' Most Wanted Person of the Day for June 2, 2025. (Valley Crimes Stoppers)
41 minutes ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Stephanie Marie Zamarripa

57 minutes ago

Why Trump Is Mad at ‘Sleazebag’ Leonard Leo

1 hour ago

Trump Amplifies Outlandish Robot Biden Conspiracy Theory

The Madera County Sheriff’s Office is searching for Alexander Lopez, 25, an at-risk man last seen Monday morning in Oakhurst. (Madera County SO)
2 hours ago

Madera County Authorities Seek Public’s Help Locating Missing At-Risk Man

Actor Margot Robbie is photographed during a photocall for the upcoming Warner Bros. film "Barbie" in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
2 hours ago

Mattel Is Combining Film and Television Units to Create Mattel Studios

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend