Palm Springs settles Marine shooting lawsuit for $2.6M

Palm Springs has agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of Cpl. Allan "AJ" DeVillena II, a Marine who was shot by a police officer who dove through the window of DeVillena’s moving car in 2012.

This is the third time the city has settled a lawsuit involving police Officer Chad Nordman.

Attorneys negotiated the settlement during an eleventh-hour conference on Monday. If the deal had not been brokered, the lawsuit would have gone to trial next week.

City Attorney Patrick Desmond described the settlement as a "business decision," made by the city's insurance company. Desmond said the city "stands behind" the officers who killed DeVillena, and blamed the Marine for the shooting.

“Given the actions of Mr. DeVillena, it was reasonable for both officers to respond with deadly force to defend themselves,” Desmond said in a prepared statement “This was a tragic event that could have been avoided had Mr. DeVillena not placed the officers’ lives in danger.”

In response, Benjamin Schonbrun, an attorney for the DeVillena family, said it was “chilling” that, even after the costly settlement, the city was backing the “inept conduct” of its police officers.

“When a police officer with his gun drawn dives into the open window of a moving car and seconds later he and his partner open fire at point blank range killing a driver who had no weapons and driving at 5mph ... and the police department and their lawyer say its OK, the residents and visitors to the city of Palm Springs have lots to worry about,” Schonbrun said.

DeVillena, 22, a High Desert Marine, was killed on Nov. 10, 2012. DeVillena, a drunk driver, was shot six times as he attempted to flee from police in the bottom floor of the downtown public parking garage. Nordman and his partner, Mike Heron, were trying to stop the Marine from driving drunk, but he ignored their commands to stop and began to drive towards the garage exit.

The confrontation escalated when Nordman attempted to stop DeVillena's car by jumping through the passenger-side window with his gun drawn. Nordman landed in DeVillena’s lap with his legs sticking outside the window and his pistol poking DeVillena in the face.

Heron did not see Nordman leap through the window, so he assumed his partner had been pulled into the vehicle against his will, according to statements he made to law enforcement. Heron opened fire on the car to save Nordman, then Nordman shot DeVillena in the torso at point blank range, concerned he would be injured if the Marine continued to flee.

“Why did you jump in that window?” a police investigator asked Nordman after the shooting, according to investigative documents obtained by The Desert Sun.

“Make the driver stop,” Nordman said. “He didn’t seem like he was gonna ... taking me seriously enough, me being outside of the car and telling him to stop, so I figured I’d get inside and make him stop.”

This year, the DeVillena shooting was the focus of an investigation by The Desert Sun, which called into question the tactics used by police. In prior interviews, law enforcement experts have called this shooting an extreme example of “officer-created jeopardy,” in which a policeman puts himself into a perilous situation, then is forced to protect himself with lethal force.

“It’s a horrible situation the police officer is in because I’m sure he wants to stop this guy from driving away drunk, but unfortunately diving in the car makes the situation worse,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a deadly force expert at the University of South Carolina. “And at the time the officer pulled the trigger, he may have had a reasonable fear for his life, but with that said, it was his actions that created the jeopardy.”

Although experts were critical of Nordman’s decision to jump into the car, the police department has said previously that the officer acted reasonably. An internal investigation found the officers did not violate the department’s “use of force” policy, and neither officer was disciplined for the shooting. Nordman said in a deposition that he has never discussed the shooting with any of his supervisors at the police department.

Nordman and Heron were also cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

After the shooting, an autopsy revealed that DeVillena's blood-alcohol content was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit to drive.

Investigators also discovered that DeVillena may have stolen a bank card, iPhone and some cash from an unconscious man shortly before entering the parking garage. Police did not know about this theft at the time of the shooting, but it could have influenced DeVillena's decision to flee.

The DeVillena family described the fallen Marine as an "honorable man" — hardworking, caring and beloved. DeVillena had followed his grandfathers footsteps into the military, and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, according to a news release from his attorneys.

"The parents of AJ are determined to use the unthinkable tragedy of losing their son to seek reform of police tactics in the use of deadly force so that another family does not unjustly suffer in this way," Schonbrun said.

This is the third time Palm Springs has had to settle a lawsuit over police activity involving Nordman. The city paid out a $52,500 settlement in a discrimination lawsuit as a result of the 2009 Warm Sands sex sting, in which Nordman went undercover to bait gay men into exposing themselves in public. The city also paid $125,000 to Benjamin Meza, a bystander who was accidentally shot after Nordman and two other officers opened fire on a fleeing suspect in January 2013.

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