The Brief

Los Angeles County supervisors signed off on a $25-million settlement Tuesday in the case of a 28-year-old man who was paralyzed after he was shot by a sheriff’s deputy during a scuffle at the man’s home three years ago.

Isaias Cervantes was 25 and experiencing a mental health crisis in March 2021 when the shooting occurred at his home in the southeast L.A. County city of Cudahy, according to one of the family’s attorneys.

Cervantes, who is also deaf, is now paralyzed from his chest down.

Attorney Austin Dove said Cervantes uses a wheelchair and has been deprived of the things he loves: horseback riding, dancing and helping his father at work.

Isaias Cervantes

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Courtesy of the Cervantes family

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The family sued the Sheriff’s Department in 2021, claiming civil rights violations, excessive force, assault and negligence.

“There were so many things that could have been done differently and the harms are extreme,” Dove told LAist.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it conducted an internal investigation and found the shooting to be within policy.

“Any call for service that results in a shooting is traumatic for all involved and in situations where we encounter an individual who is experiencing a mental health crisis it adds an additional layer of complexity,” the department said.

The L.A. County CEO’s office said it would not comment on the settlement.

The Cervantes case is the latest in which L.A. County was ordered or agreed to pay millions to plaintiffs. Last fiscal year, the county paid more than $257 million to satisfy 22 judgments and settle 320 lawsuits, a 212% increase over the previous fiscal year, according to a county report.

Among them was a lawsuit filed by the family of Andres Guardado, who claimed the department used excessive force when a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Guardado outside an auto body shop in Compton. The department claimed Guardado reached for a gun he had previously placed on the ground.

The county agreed to pay $8 million to Guardado’s family.

What we know about the shooting

On March 31, 2021, one of Cervantes’ family members called 911 and said he “was having a mental health crisis and creating a disturbance by pushing other family members,” according to a 20-minute narrated video produced by the sheriff’s department that includes the 911 call, body-worn camera footage and additional department commentary.

Two deputies responded to the call and showed up at the Cervantes home. In bodycam video, Cervantes appears to resist as deputies grab each of his arms in an apparent attempt to handcuff him.

Because the deputies’ cameras fell off during the struggle, the footage does not capture key moments of the encounter. The view of the struggle is largely obstructed, but audio is still picked up. One deputy can be heard yelling, “He’s going for my gun!”

The other deputy fired a single shot, hitting Cervantes “in the left side of his torso,” according to the department.

One of the deputies was injured in the scuffle, suffering “facial abrasions, bilateral eye contusions, corneal abrasions and a cervical sprain,” the department said.

A long legal battle

The lawsuit filed in 2021 against L.A. County named both deputies involved in the incident: David Vega and Jonathan Miramontez.

Six months after the incident, the district attorney’s office filed criminal charges against Cervantes, accusing him of assault and resisting an officer by violence.

More than a dozen advocacy groups, including the Autism Society of L.A., sent a letter to District Attorney George Gascón’s office urging him to drop the charges.

“This is a person with autism who is also deaf and now paralyzed because of the shooting by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department,” Judy Mark, president of Disability Voices United, said at the time.

The charges were later dropped. Gascón’s office does not usually publicly disclose the specific reasons when it declines to pursue charges, but Dove said the office cited insufficient evidence.

Mental health team not called in

Law enforcement agencies have acknowledged, to some extent, the need for teams of medical professionals to respond to calls involving people in mental health crisis. L.A. County has Mental Evaluation Teams, known as MET, that consist of a specially-trained deputy and a Department of Mental Health clinician.

Lt. John Gannon, who previously headed up the Mental Evaluation Teams said in 2021 that if a deputy knows a call involves a person living with autism in crisis, they should notify MET.

“If patrol knows a call involves an autistic person in crisis, they would indeed notify MET to co-respond,” Gannon said in an email.

He told LAist in 2021 that MET was not called to respond to the Cervantes incident.

‘No closure’

Dove said this week that he hoped the settlement would help the family members get the resources they need to care for Cervantes, who still has bullet fragments in his back from the incident.

“There’s no closure ... when you have this sort of permanent paralysis injury,” Dove said.

On Tuesday, Dove, members of Cervantes’ family and others held a news conference outside of the board of supervisors’ meeting before they voted to approve the settlement.

Cervantes’ sister said she hoped that families caring for loved ones living with autism would get more support. And she hoped her brother’s life would change for the better.

“It’s sad to see him suffering,” Yajaira Cervantes said. “He likes the fact that there’s people supporting him and that there’s a community that’s also helping him and for his voice to matter.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people.

The ban on shock gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030. It comes weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to equip its officers with the gloves, which are designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency awarded a nearly $17 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs.

“Trump has put his political interests above the health, safety and livelihood of American families,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is taking action to strengthen transparency, accountability, and oversight around immigration enforcement in our state.”

The law is the latest example of how Democratic-led states have been pushing back against President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts since he took office last year. In California, lawmakers passed at least two dozen bills this year seeking to fortify immigrants’ rights, restrict cooperation with federal immigration agents and tighten regulations on immigrant detention facilities, among other things.

Nationwide, 17 states with Democratic-led legislatures have passed a total of more than 100 pro-immigrant bills this year, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill tracking software Plural. The most common purpose is to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents.

Democratic California Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins said she introduced the shock-gloves legislation to “put a pause” on law enforcement’s use of the devices while the state examines their potential risks. The law requires the state’s Justice Department to study their safety and report to lawmakers by 2029.

“There’s a lot of unrest and a lot of uncertainty,” she said in an interview. “A lot of people are scared.”

The law will again test the state’s authority to restrict federal agents amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A federal judge earlier this year blocked the state’s first-in-the-nation law barring federal officers from wearing face coverings, deeming it too selective because it applied to local and federal law enforcement but exempted state officers.

Lawmakers passed a new bill this year to make the ban apply to all officers. Newsom signed that legislation.

Kevin Johnson, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, said courts are likely to ultimately rule that the state cannot bar federal officers from wearing shock gloves or face coverings. The laws are well-intentioned, he said, but likely conflict with the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which generally sets federal law as supreme over conflicting state law.

“The state has very limited, if any, powers in dictating to the federal government how its officers are armed,” he said.

California law enforcement groups broadly opposed the ban.

Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper, a Democrat and former state lawmaker, said banning shock gloves “really makes no sense” because they are among the non-lethal tools officers can use if necessary.

“When the federal government does something, the state Legislature wants to ban it,” he said at a news conference. “They’re making our job harder.”

Sharp-Collins said ICE’s plan to use shock gloves was the catalyst for the ban. But she cited their use by other officers, including a case in which a Kentucky family alleges a man died after being tased and shocked with the gloves dozens of times while in law enforcement custody in 2024.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who wrote last year’s mask ban, also authored this year’s measure to expand it to state officers.

“California must use every available tool to stand up for our communities under attack from ICE’s secret police terror campaign,” he said in a statement after it passed the Legislature.

Associated Press writer David A. Lieb contributed to this report from Jefferson City, Missouri.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed two bills that would have helped improve the insurance-claims process for consumers but signed one that also addresses claims-related issues, leaving Los Angeles County fire survivors and others wondering whether the vetoes were retaliatory.

One bill, Senate Bill 877, would have required insurance companies to explain in more detail to their customers how their claims payments are calculated. Another, SB 878, would have required insurers to pay claims within a certain amount of time, and imposed penalties for delays.

In his veto statement Sunday, the governor said the bills codified existing regulations and were “unnecessary at this time.”

But he signed SB 876, which among other things requires insurers to send their customers a status report within 15 days of assigning a new adjuster to their claims; doubles penalties during a declared emergency when insurers violate fair claims practices and settlement law; and mandates that insurers send a disaster-recovery plan to the Insurance Department.

Newsom’s office would not provide more information. Spokesperson Anthony Martinez said the governor’s veto message speaks for itself, and pointed to other legislation Newsom signed that helps survivors, such as setting new smoke-damage standards.

Martinez did not respond to a question about an accusation that the governor vetoed the two bills because they were sponsored by fire survivors and a consumer advocacy group who fought against his failed effort to reduce utilities’ liability for wildfires they cause.

Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, told CalMatters that all three bills “were along the same vein, addressing claims-handling problems,” although they did not overlap. The difference, she said, was that the two bills Newsom vetoed were sponsored by her group and Every Fire Survivors Network.

“It’s a real black mark on the governor that he would throw survivors under the bus in that way for what appears to be a petty reason,” Balber said.

Democratic state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez wrote SB 877 and 878, prompted by experiences of fire survivors she represents in Altadena. She pushed back against the governor’s veto statement, saying existing regulations have not been enough to avoid insurers’ delays and denials of survivors’ claims. As an example, she pointed to the insurance department’s findings that State Farm violated laws in its handling of L.A. fire survivors’ claims.

“I would hope (the decision) is not because of politics and petty infighting,” Pérez told CalMatters.

The senator added that her bills got bipartisan support and that the insurance industry eventually dropped their opposition to them. She noted that some survivors of the January 2025 fires are still navigating their claims. “The reality is that this decision is going to have an impact on survivors’ recovery,” she said.

Every Fire Survivors Network agreed.

“These vetoes mean more families will face what we have faced: rebuilding stalled, bills piling up, and lives on hold while waiting for insurance money they are owed,” said Joy Chen, executive director of the group, in a statement.

Pérez, Consumer Watchdog and Every Fire Survivors Network vowed to try again next session.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara was also a co-sponsor of SB 878 but had no comment on the governor’s veto, although his office issued a statement celebrating the signing of SB 876: “It holds insurers accountable when they drag their feet.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Los Angeles County will begin sending mail-in ballots starting this Thursday ahead of the Nov. 3 elections. Counties across the state have until next Monday, Oct. 5, to begin mailing out ballots.

In the June primary, nearly 82% of the total ballots cast in L.A. County were through vote-by-mail ballots.

State and local officials are encouraging people to vote early.

When can I turn in my ballot?

L.A. County elections officials say voters can turn in their ballots by mail as soon as they receive them. No postage is necessary.

They can also turn them in starting this week at official dropboxes across the county, which are often found at parks, community centers or libraries.

Voters can also turn them in or vote in person at the county’s Vote Centers, which L.A. County officials say will start to open on Oct. 24. Officials say all Vote Centers will be open by Halloween.

What about in Orange County?

Orange County officials say U.S. Postal Service officials are scheduled to pick up about 1.9 million ballots from the county elections office on Saturday and start delivering them on Monday, Oct. 5.

The Trump administration has tried to restrict mail-in ballots. Will my ballot be affected?

The California Secretary of State’s office says nothing has currently changed. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month issued an injunction on President Trump’s executive order requiring states to turn in lists of voters and ordering the USPS to send mail-in ballots to the people on the approved lists.

"Voters will be able to cast their ballots without uncertainty, without hesitation, and without fear that their voices will be questioned or their ballots rejected," said Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

Los Angeles County is reporting the highest number of rabid bats on record, a to-date total of 69, officials said.

This year’s rabid bat count has already matched 2025’s total, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health, which released the count Monday, marking World Rabies Day.

Health officials emphasized that rabid bats have been found all over the county "from suburban areas such as the San Fernando Valley to urban areas like downtown Los Angeles, in office buildings, parks, schools, businesses, and residential backyards."

That said, a large share of rabid bats — 68% of the 69 found so far — were in the Santa Clarita Valley, and they were mainly canyon bats, which are common in California.

When to be on high alert

Officials warned that a third of human encounters with rabid bats happened indoors, where the risk of exposure to the virus is higher.

Bat bites are small and can be hard to detect. Rabies can also be spread through scratches or other transfers of saliva.

“If you find a bat indoors or think you may have had contact with one, contact your medical provider or Public Health right away,” Dr. Muntu Davis, a Los Angeles County Health officer, said in a statement. “And remember, never touch a bat or any wild animals. Immediately report any bat found indoors, or outdoors if it appears sick, active during the day, unable to fly, or dead, to your local animal control.”

Who to call

Veterinary Public Health

Phone: 213-288-7060
Email: vet@ph.lacounty.gov
Website: publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet

*Call 211 to find your local animal control

What to know about rabies

Rabies in humans is treatable with a series of vaccines. Rabies is always fatal in animals, the county said in a release, so vaccinate your pets.