The city of La Mesa settled a civil lawsuit with a 61-year-old woman left partially blind by an officer shooting beanbag rounds during a 2020 protest of the killing of George Floyd.
Despite receiving an eight-figure award, the woman says her life has been severely altered, and no amount of money can replace what she’s lost.
The city of La Mesa settled a complaint filed on behalf of Leslie Furcron by Dante Pride in the San Diego Superior Court (and later forwarded to federal court) for $10 million, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The lawyer said in a statement, “Ms. Leslie Furcron suffered horrific, life-changing injuries at the hands of the LMPD, under circumstances that were criminal at worst and grossly negligent at best.”
The lawsuit alleged Furcron’s First Amendment right to protest was violated by La Mesa police detective Eric Knudson.
The officer shot Furcron during a protest on May 30, 2020, outside La Mesa Police Department headquarters with bean bag ammunition. He open fire on Furcron because he believed she was throwing rocks at other police.
According to the lawsuit, the officer not only impeded her right to protest but violated standard law enforcement practices. An investigation into the incident proved that the woman did not throw rocks but an empty can of Red Bull.
The settlement was actually reached in December 2022; however, it is scheduled to be approved by the La Mesa City Council in April.
The woman’s lawyer says this is one of the largest known settlements for an officer’s non-death excessive use of force case in the history of San Diego County. City officials said they were “glad” to come to a “resolution to this very unfortunate incident.”
Even though the city settled with Furcron, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the La Mesa Police Department absolved Knudson of wrongdoing in 2021 when criminal charges were not filed.
District Attorney Summer Stephan…
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