Father Of Dead Homeless Man Says Fullerton Offered Him $900K To Settle

July 30, 2011 11:20 PM

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FULLERTON (AP) — The father of a homeless man who died after a fight with Fullerton police says he has been offered $900,000 to settle any civil claims against the city.

Ron Thomas says an attorney representing the city made the offer on Friday, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

Neither city officials nor the attorney could be reached for comment, and the offer could not be confirmed.

The FBI and the Orange County District Attorney are investigating the death of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas, who was schizophrenic. He died several days after he struggled with six officers investigating burglaries on July 5.

Thomas had severe head and neck injuries, and witnesses claim he was struck with a flashlight and shot with a Taser.

The newspaper says more than 200 people turned out Saturday to demonstrate at the Fullerton police station.

Rachel Kim, reporting for KCAL9 and CBS2, was at the vigil and protest.

Father Of Dead Homeless Man Says Fullerton Offered Him $900K To Settle

Amy

KFI AM 640 on weekdays has excellent coverage about this story. This was an unarmed (yes unarmed) 135 lbs homeless man who was murdered by Fullerton police officers. If Rodney King didn’t die and got 4 million from the city this man’s family should receive at least 4 million from the city of Fullerton. Great job Fullerton PD…keep up the good work.

Roger Thornhill

Amy, I think you are an excellent candidate to effect the arrest of violent suspects with psychological problems. See you in the field, since you clearly have the training and physical skills to deal with these types of people in a flawless manner, right?

Mike

Totally agree with Amy. Roger you are one very narrow-minded individual. If you consider a schizophrenic 135 pound UNARMED homeless man “violent” you would certainly have a nervous breakdown if a person had a knife or gun on them. The word “violent” goes out of the equazion when any UNARMED suspect is surrounded by 5-6 police officers with guns and tasers. Simple concept to understand. The Fullerton Police Department knows that the officers involved in this beating are their bad apples so-to-speak. I commend the father of this man for not accepting the DA’s 900K settlement. Time will tell that they will terminate and or suspend some the officers involved in this incident. Not to mention, the city will be forced to pay out more then 900K. The Fullerton Police Department must be very mad at the fact that they tried covering up this story as much as possible but they failed…LOL

kandles

Amy should be named person of the year by the aclu & national lawyers guild!!
Robert Gettinger

Sadly Police jobs are often given to psychopaths who seek power and control. They are not doing the job to serve or protect but to have a gun, badge and the right to power. The training is a LIE, I know I’ve been there, its when the agency hides these mentally ill officers and rewards them for abuse by proteCounties and cities allow judges and police to MURDER and abuse their power and go unprosecuted. This has been going on for years, FBI, Police, Sheriff, DOJ, California bar you name it they IGNORE MURDER, see avivakbobb.com for a judge who caused the death of Lee Peters an innocent woman, Bobb also caused the death of a child. When the heat started to get bad Bobb retired early running away from her crimes with millions of dollars scammed in legal fraud via the probate courts. Find the real victims at http://www.facebook.com/robertagettinger FACEBOOK, where murder is not hidden. Why should it take a crowd of people to get these horrendous crimes out?cting them. Please do yourself a favor and network for stories the media wont tell you at facebook

fed up

He didnt care enough about his son to give him a place to live, but he is playing the injured party now and wants money. What a jerk.

lin

amen
OC is full of fascist morons

You should do some research before sticking your foot in your mouth. The victim was homeless by choice. The father offered him a place to live at his house, and he refused.

elaine

Homeless by choice?! Is an individual suffering from mental illness making appropriate choices? Choice? Define that clearly! So if you are homeless by choice this deems it permissible for police and society to not be held responsible for their actions or lack there of! His being homeless is not the point here. It could have been anyone sitting there that could have been subjected to this. Simply asking a question is enough to promote hostility and aggression from the police here in Long Beach homeless or not!

heidi

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/kelly-thomas-fullerton-ho_n_917713.html

Read this story — the father DID care. His family tried to help him. However, the mentally ill often either don’t want help or deny their illness. Don’t be so quick to judge until you know the WHOLE story!

This Can’t Happen

There has to be something done about this. The police cannot do whatever they want and think there will not be any consequences. What they did to this homeless man is despicable. We expect officers to uphold the law, not to be the law. To many of them have a “cowboy” mentality and they are encouraged by the fact that nothing happens to them when they step out of their authority. I really hope that this is not another forgotten situation. We have to stand together when the Police do things like this.
rich

a person with mental issues can and likely will be 10 times stronger then the normal person their size so this homeless man was NOT A VICTIM

Monica

I agree. We just read about a woman who unbuckled a baby from his stroller and banged him against some pole or truck. The baby’s mom and her sister weren’t able to fight off this ‘mentally challenged’ person.
OC is full of fascist morons

WRONG on both counts. Wow. The stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

Bryan Conover

The saga continues…Now the FBI and Justice Department are doing their own investigations. Personally im thinking about moving to Fullerton after hearing this story. Society needs some ass beatings once in a while…Keeps everyone in line.
Daniel

As sad as this story is I wonder why this man was homeless in the first place. So NOW his family decided to give a damn and mourn his situation? Yes I know losing family is always difficult, but it seems this family had already lost this man a while back. If they really cared, they should have taken him in and given him a place to LIVE. Or, maybe they couldn’t live with him because he may just have been an unstable and (maybe) even a violent individual to live with, of course they won’t say that now.

OC is full of fascist morons

They did. He was homeless by choice.
Heidi

Do a little googling on this story and you will know why he was homeless! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/kelly-thomas-fullerton-ho_n_917713.html

This story just skims what really happened! He was MENTALLY ILL — His family TRIED to help him. Schizophrenia is a nightmare. Once diagnosed, they usually do well while on medication. However, that feeling of “wellness” leads them to believe they don’t need the medication, which results in a return to their nightmare — until someone is able to get them into treatment and back on medication. And, so it goes … but as time goes on, their lives deteriorate — like this man’s life did. My heart goes out to his family.

rich

your very wrong my son had ONE fall from his meds then his mother and i got a court order to have is responsible for his care now if he leaves he is subject to arrest and returned to us so the idea that the ill can just walk off by them selfs is bull a good caring parent would see to it that the ill COULD NOT DO SO and my son is 24 lives alone but my wife or i check on him DAILY so there is no excuse for the lack of care this father had for his son

susan

who are the people that are supposed to protect the people against these corupt individuals. I am tired of hearing about police officers that go way over and beyond. we cannot stand for this anymore. It boils my blood that the city can just pay people off and six months down the line those cops will be back at work. Fire them hold them accountable! anybody see that homeless man at the 7 11 on euclid and orangethorpe? pretty sure hes got issues but iv never had a problem with him in five years. lets stop allowing the police departments to just pay people off and do something about what they are doing.
MARIA FUENTES

i see many examples of comments here that reflect the growing selfishness of this generation. responsibility for the ill is something that just hasnt been resolved. this story should bring attention to the situation of the homeless and the ill and why they are in the streets like this vulnerable. can u blame the police , can the blame the family, can u blame this man for being sick in the first place.? we are living in and amongst very selfish people. responsibility and genuine concern starts with each individual.

OC is full of fascist morons

Reagan cut funding for mental health programs. The result was the release of tens of thousands of mentally ill people into the streets.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/08/05/aclu-orange-county-da-has-abysmal-record-of-investigating-police-involved-deaths/ ACLU: Orange County DA Has ‘Abysmal’ Record Of Investigating Police-Involved Deaths « CBS Los Angeles

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