A Marin County jury acquitted a San Rafael police officer of felony charges Tuesday in connection with a violent arrest that set off protests in the city.
The jurors found Brandon Carl Nail not guilty of committing assault under color of authority and submitting a false police report, concluding a trial of more than four weeks. If convicted of both charges, Nail could have faced a prison sentence of up to six years and eight months.
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Meanwhile, San Rafael City Attorney Rob Epstein said Tuesday that the city has tentatively agreed to pay the man Nail arrested, Julio Jimenez Lopez, $999,000 to settle his civil rights lawsuit.
Theo Emison, an attorney for Lopez, said, “Though we respect the jury’s verdict, a criminal acquittal does not change what the body worn camera shows or what my client endured.”
The jury reached its verdict Tuesday morning after three days of deliberating. Nail hugged his defense attorneys Julia Fox and Andrew Ganz after the court clerk read the verdict.
“This has been an incredibly long and arduous journey,” Fox said. “We’re so grateful for this thoughtful jury finally having the moxie to do the right thing. We’ve been at bat, trying to have the right thing done at every turn, and this jury made it happen.”
Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli, who attended the reading of the verdict, said her staff believed the case needed to be presented to a jury.
“We accept the jury’s verdict that the case wasn’t proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and we thank them for their service,” Frugoli said.
She also addressed the San Rafael police staff.
“The DA’s office never considered the defendant’s conduct in this case as a reflection of the San Rafael Police Department generally, which otherwise has provided outstanding service to the public over the years,” said Frugoli, a former reserve officer at the department.
The jury foreperson and other jurors declined to comment after the verdict.
San Rafael fired Nail after an independent investigator concluded that he violated department policy. Nail appealed, and a state-appointed arbitrator determined that his firing was unjust. He has been on administrative leave pending the outcome of the trial.
After the verdict, the city announced that the California Commission on Police Officers Standards and Training, which had suspended Nail’s certificate, will reinstate it.
“The city has no choice but to reinstate Nail,” the announcement said.
The confrontation happened on July 27, 2022, along Windward Way in the Canal neighborhood. Officer Daisy Mazariegos approached Lopez and two other men who appeared to be drinking alcohol in the open.
Mazariegos ordered Lopez to sit down, but he continued to stand while getting his identification from his pocket. Nail intervened and profanely ordered Lopez to sit. Then Mazariegos and Nail moved to detain Lopez. Nail took Lopez down with a leg sweep and punched him in the nose.
Nail testified that he thought Lopez was grabbing for his vest, which held his weapons. He also said he thought Lopez was trying to put him in a headlock.
Lopez, 39, testified that he suffered injuries such as a broken nose, shoulder injuries and head trauma from the arrest. Lopez also denied assaulting the officers during the struggle.
The Marin County District Attorney’s Office initially charged Lopez with resisting police, but the footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras prompted prosecutors to dismiss the case and pursue charges against Nail and Mazariegos instead.
During the trial, the prosecution said Nail used excessive force and wrote a false police report to cover it up. The defense said Nail was protecting himself from a combative detainee.
Nail testified that he watched camera footage several times before he wrote his report. He said he did not access Mazariegos’ camera footage at the time.
“I believe it was accurate at the time I wrote it,” Nail testified.
Mazariegos was charged with the same felonies as Nail. Two judges dismissed her charges in previous hearings.
Mazariegos, who was a probationary officer at the time of the Lopez incident, was released by the department.
“Justice is finally done,” Mazariegos’ attorney, Alison Berry Wilkinson, said after Nail was acquitted.