Brett Kelman

The Desert Sun

A Thermal man who was shot by police last year has sued the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, claiming that deputies opened fire on him without reason and then falsely accused him of brandishing a shotgun to justify their use of deadly force.

The lawsuit also alleges that the sheriff’s department held the man’s girlfriend and infant son in custody for more than six hours after the shooting, which is described as an intimidation tactic.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ayala, 35, a day laborer who lives on Filmore Street, was shot three times in the middle of the night last September while police were investigating a report of gunshots in the area.

In his lawsuit, Rodriguez said he mistook the deputies’ for burglars, so he grabbed a shotgun and headed outside to defend his home, but was shot the instant he opened his front door. Rodriguez claims that a deputy later told him that he “had not done anything wrong,” but that the sheriff’s department then issued a press release saying Rodriguez pointed his shotgun at deputies, causing them to open fire.

“This statement is evidence that the Department has a policy, practice, and custom of permitting, encouraging, and protecting the unlawful conduct of its deputies,” Rodriguez’s lawsuit states.

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Although the sheriff's press release said Rodriguez pointed his shotgun at deputies, he has not been charged with any crime — for example, brandishing a firearm — in the eight months since the shooting. John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, said Friday that he could not find any record of Rodriguez in the DA's case management system, which means the sheriff's department never sent a case to the DA's office for prosecution.

The sheriff’s department declined to discuss the lawsuit. The agency has denied Rodriguez’s allegations in court, arguing that his injuries were his fault because his family failed to “exercise ordinary care on their own behalves for their own safety.”

The department identified the deputies who fired at Rodriguez as Paul Heredia and Miguel Ramos.

Rodriguez’s attorneys, Michael Lewis and Ian Samson, both of Los Angeles, declined to expand on the allegations in the complaint.

Rodriguez’s lawsuit comes about three months after the sheriff’s department settled a different lawsuit over another east-valley police shooting. In that case, the county will pay nearly $7 million to the family of Luis Morin Jr., who was killed by Coachella Deputy Oscar Rodriguez in 2014. Authorities initially decided that the deputy was justified in shooting Morin because the officer claimed Morin tried to grab his gun. However, after the lawsuit revealed that the deputy had been having an affair with Morin’s girlfriend, the DA’s office re-opened the investigation into the shooting.

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Attorneys reference this Coachella shooting in the new lawsuit, arguing that it shows how the sheriff’s department “shrouds the facts” of police shootings so its “culture of violence goes on unchallenged.”

The Thermal shooting happened at about 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 25. Deputies were responding to a 911 call about gunshots, checking homes on the street in an attempt to find whomever made the call.

When the officers reached Rodriguez’s house, however, the search went wrong.

Rodriguez and his family were awoken by barking dogs and a flashlight shining through their window. However, there were no red-and-blue lights, and no one identified themselves as police officers, so Rodriguez says he believed someone was trying to break into his house. He grabbed his shotgun.

What happened next is a matter of debate.

According to the sheriff’s department, Rodriguez stepped into the open doorway. Deputies identified themselves as police officers. Rodriguez raised his shotgun and pointed it at them. The deputies opened fire.

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The lawsuit tells a different story: Rodriguez said he was shot the instant he opened the door. Not only did he never raise the shotgun, but he was shot so fast that he was still holding the gun behind a half-way open door, out of sight of police. Deputies didn’t identify themselves until after firing at him.

The lawsuit says police fired eight shots, striking Rodriguez three times. Another bullet flew into the family’s bedroom, where Rodriguez’s girlfriend, Monica Resvaloso, was holding their infant son.

The lawsuit claims that police then ordered Resvaloso and the children to exit the house, stepping over Rodriguez, who was lying on his back, bleeding in the doorway. Once the family was outside, deputies ordered Rodriguez to stand and walk towards them, about 100 feet outside the house. He was then thrown to the ground and taken into custody.

“It’s just a broken arm,” an unnamed deputy allegedly said to Rodriguez, according to the lawsuit.

The deputy then turned to another deputy: “Your aim is off … That’s where you shot him?”

Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email atbrett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.