The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office long has denied wrongdoing in the killing of an unarmed homeless man shot to death by two reserve sheriff’s deputies.

The killing took place at a wrecking yard southwest of Fresno in March 2020.

However, U.S. District Court Judge Kirk E. Sherriff said in a 32-page ruling issued in July that the bulk of the lawsuit filed by the family of the deceased Kenneth Mullins could move forward.

Sherriff found that a jury should decide whether the two reserve deputies, Chris Curtice and Alex Riordan, violated Mullins’ 4th and 14th Amendment rights. The judge also ruled that the lawsuit’s allegations that the deputies engaged in battery and negligence resulting in wrongful death should be decided at trial.

Analyzed former longtime Fresno Bee courthouse reporter Pablo Lopez in his online publication Fresno Spotlight:

“If found liable, the Sheriff’s Office could pay hefty civil damages, as well as attorneys fees. Curtice, who fired the fatal shots, also could be ordered to pay punitive damages because Sherriff ruled that a jury could find Curtice had exhibited a conscious disregard for Mullins’ safety or life.”

Sherriff’s ruling stated that “(a) reasonable jury could find that Curtice acted with reckless or callous indifference to plaintiffs’ constitutional rights when he used deadly force against Mullins.”

The judge also identified a key fact to be determined at trial: If the deputies reasonably believed Mullins, 32 at the time of his killing, had a gun when they shot him.

The Attorneys

The trial is scheduled to begin in early October.

Veteran high-profile Fresno attorney Nicholas “Butch” Wagner and co-counsel attorney Mark Schallert are representing Mullins’ family.

Fresno attorneys James Weakley and Brande Gustafson are defending the Sheriff’s Office.

Learn More

Read more at Fresno Spotlight and Courthouse News Service.