{"id":1053660,"date":"2026-09-09T20:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1053660\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:38:18","slug":"sheriffs-oversight-board-declines-to-revisit-case-of-man-who-died-after-being-paralyzed-by-deputies-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1053660\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff\u2019s oversight board declines to revisit case of man who died after being paralyzed by deputies \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The civilian board charged with overseeing the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office will not revisit the case of a homeless man who was beaten and paralyzed<\/a> by deputies during a confrontation over an expired registration on the broken-down van he called home before dying years later from his injuries.<\/p>\n

The Citizens\u2019 Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, posted its decision late Tuesday, five days after speakers at the September meeting pleaded with the volunteer panel to investigate the 2023 death of Randal Tanner more closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings that I\u2019ve found have raised serious questions,\u201d Richard Tanner told the volunteer board just before it convened in closed session to debate circumstances of his brother\u2019s death. \u201cNot the incident itself, but what came after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yusef Miller, executive director of the advocacy group Saving Lives In Custody California, told the board that Randal Tanner was not the only person experiencing homelessness who has been mistreated by sheriff\u2019s deputies.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years you have heard complaints about how the unhoused population are treated,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThere is a pattern in some of our homeless population when it comes to in-custody deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the testimony, the review board voted 7-2 against further considering their prior investigations into what happened to Tanner in 2019, according to final findings posted on the CLERB website Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Sheriff'sSheriff\u2019s deputies pinned Randal Tanner to the ground, hitting his head on the pavement, during an encounter in 2019. (San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

Executive Officer Brett Kalina did not immediately comment on the vote or disclose how individual board members voted on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cCLERB has just recently implemented (publishing) the voting totals but the individual board member\u2019s vote is confidential,\u201d Kalina said by email Tuesday. \u201cIt has never been released to my knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision all but shutters the independent review of the Tanner case, which was initially opened as an excessive-force case after Tanner was badly injured by deputies in a 2019 confrontation over their decision to impound his van.<\/p>\n

CLERB ruled in 2020 that the use of force by one deputy was justified; an excessive-force allegation against the other deputy was unfounded, the review board said.<\/p>\n

Evidence in the case showed Tanner became agitated while removing personal items from his van and tossing them onto the Otay Mesa sidewalk where the van had been parked.\u00a0One of the deputies said he worried for his safety when a piece of rubber being unloaded nearly struck his legs, so he disarmed Tanner by forcing him to the asphalt.<\/p>\n

\"RandalBody-worn camera footage shows a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy watch Randal Tanner unload his van before it was to be towed. (San Diego County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

Tanner struck his head and began bleeding, and deputies pinned him to the ground. Both deputies subsequently retired and are collecting county pensions, records show.<\/p>\n

According to body-worn camera video of the encounter, Tanner pleaded for help and told deputies he was unable to move. He never walked again \u2014 and was never charged with committing a crime that day.<\/p>\n

Tanner spent four years in various facilities and died in 2023. The Medical Examiner\u2019s Office ruled the death a homicide and said it was a direct result of the deputies\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe developed quadriplegia, cervical spinal cord contusion injury, cervical myelopathy and neurogenic shock secondary to an altercation with police on May 31, 2019,\u201d autopsy findings said.<\/p>\n

CLERB reopened the case in 2024 as a result of the medical examiner\u2019s findings, and last month Kalina recommended against reexamining the events surrounding Tanner\u2019s encounter with deputies.<\/p>\n

In August, the review board voted 7-1<\/a> to defer any decision in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough CLERB opened this case out of an abundance of caution, it was determined there was no new evidence regarding the original complaint of excessive force,\u201d Kalina said ahead of last month\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNor did the M.E.\u2019s report produce any new evidence of the use of force, and therefore CLERB cannot revisit the original findings,\u201d he added. \u201cWithout new and substantial evidence of the use of force, CLERB does not have jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Parker, the former CLERB executive officer who resigned in 2024 due to what he said were ineffective board practices, had a different view of the Tanner case.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though the 2019 case found no misconduct and the involved deputies are no longer employed, there is clearly a public interest in knowing exactly what occurred,\u201d Parker told the\u00a0Union-Tribune before the August CLERB meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be reconsidered and included in a comprehensive CLERB investigation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tom Packard, a longtime activist fighting for better conditions in San Diego County jails, also urged the review board to look more closely at the Tanner case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you will give serious attention to the Randal Tanner case,\u201d Packard told CLERB members before they convened in closed session to discuss the case. \u201cClearly some or many things went wrong in terms of deputy behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease pursue justice in this case and reach a fair and just conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite video footage and other evidence released in the case, Richard Tanner said no lawyer would take the case back in 2019. His brother was 58 and homeless, he said, and several lawyers told him that any legal settlement would not likely be worth their time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The civilian board charged with overseeing the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office will not revisit the case of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1053661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,5295,1370,728,50,80348,3549,3550,7264,34159,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1053660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-otay-mesa","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-sandiego","tag-south-county","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117243013444629680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1053660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1053661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1053660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1053660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1053660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}