Federal judge orders new trial in Rohnert Park police death case

A federal judge has overturned a jury verdict awarding $4 million to the family of Branch Wroth, a Forestville man who died in 2017 while being held facedown by Rohnert Park public safety officers on the floor of a motel room.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ordered a new trial in the federal civil rights case after finding legal errors in written instructions given by the trial judge to the 10-person jury in June, making it impossible to determine whether jurors reached their unanimous decision with the correct legal groundwork.

Wroth’s parents, Christopher and Marni Wroth, are adamant that a second jury will also conclude Rohnert Park is liable for their son’s death and will pursue a second jury trial.

“Ten people will again listen to the same evidence and watch the same video over and over and over again of Branch being killed by these men,” Marni Wroth said Tuesday night at a Rohnert Park City Council meeting. “Branch begged for his life.”

The Wroths sued the city under a federal civil rights statute that applies when a government entity or its officers cause death, depriving the Wroths of the right to be with their son and receive the comfort and support of a family member. They argued Rohnert Park failed to train its officers to avoid suffocating people when restraining them.

The city has staunchly defended its training procedures and the way its officers acted during their encounter with Wroth. When the verdict was delivered in June, Assistant City Manager Don Schwartz said the city immediately filed a court motion to overturn the verdict.

City officials believe Tigar’s Dec. 3 order overturning the verdict is just, Schwartz said.

“The jury specifically found that the officers’ actions were not the cause of Mr. Wroth’s death,” Schwartz said in a statement. “The city continues to believe that it may not be held legally liable for the incident.”

Wroth, 41, died May 12, 2017, after police were called to the Budget Inn on Redwood Drive to check on the man’s welfare. Wroth was high on methamphetamine, confused and scared his clothes were poisoned. Police detained him facedown on the ground, with hands handcuffed behind his back, after failing to persuade him to step out of the room, according to body camera video and official reports.

Wroth fell unconscious while being restrained by the officers and died at the scene. Before he went limp, Wroth can be heard in the video saying, “I can’t breathe.”

After an eight-day trial, jurors reached a unanimous verdict finding the city’s failure to train its officers partly caused Wroth’s death and that the city had acted with deliberate indifference to those risks. The jury’s verdict appears to show they were convinced the city was liable - but the officers weren’t - for those training lapses.

The now-defunct verdict would have been the largest award in a civil rights case against Sonoma County law enforcement in at least a quarter century.

In a second trial, the Wroths will have to prove to a jury the officers’ actions violated the Wroths’ rights - by partly causing Wroth’s death and by being indifferent to their rights - in order to conclude the city failed to train the officers properly on restraint procedures.

In his decision to overturn the verdict, Tigar determined the instructions provided to the jury were unclear and, in one instance, incorrect in describing the legal matters at stake.

The Wroths’ attorney, Izaak Schwaiger, said he agrees with the judge’s ruling that the jury instructions were faulty. But he believes they still have a strong case to make to a new jury that the city had neglected its duty to train its officers on a life-and-death matter.

“It wasn’t just that the city failed to train its officers about a unique situation,” Schwaiger said. “They weren’t trained for situations they are likely to regularly encounter: someone high on drugs who doesn’t want to leave a hotel room and you have to restrain them.”

He said the Wroths are determined to force the city to change its procedures in order to protect future families from similar tragic outcomes from police encounters.

“As long as Rohnert Park is seeking to avoid responsibility for his death, my clients aren’t going to give up,” Schwaiger said. “This case has a long future in front of it.”

Years before their son’s death, Christopher and Marni Wroth have been outspoken about police brutality issues in Sonoma County, and they have brought that experience to bear at Rohnert Park City Council meetings by bringing friends and family to speak to leaders about Branch Wroth’s death.

They were outspoken critics of the official responses to the 2013 shooting death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy, arguing for more police oversight and independent investigations into police-involved killings.

That same year, their younger son, Esa Wroth, was shocked with a stun gun more than 20 times at the county jail while he was being booked for drunken driving. The county eventually paid Esa Wroth $1.25 million to settle the case and agreed to make procedural changes in the jail.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Marni Wroth told the council that she will ask civil rights and police brutality organizations in the East Bay to join her family for the proceedings at the federal courthouse in Oakland.

She referred to the body camera video that will again be played in court showing how his death unfolded.

“I know you know this is torture for our family,” Marni Wroth said. “And so be it. In the end Rohnert Park will lose again.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.