Mickel Lewis Shooting: $30.5M Jury Award Exposes Police Brutality
By Darius Spearman (africanelements)
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Unarmed Black Man Killed in Controversial Traffic Stop
A federal jury awarded $30.5 million to the family of Mickel Lewis, an unarmed Black man shot five times by Kern County deputies in 2021. The verdict marks California’s second-largest police shooting award, exposing systemic failures in law enforcement (Atlanta Black Star).
Deputies claimed Lewis “charged” at them, but ballistic evidence proved three bullets struck his back. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office rejected settlements, betting on a “racist, pro-cop jury”—a gamble that backfired spectacularly (Law Offices of Dale K. Galipo).
California’s Largest Police Shooting Awards
Deputies’ Contradictory Claims vs. Hard Evidence
Officers testified Lewis threatened them with his hand behind his back—yet no weapon was found. The autopsy revealed execution-style wounds: three bullets to the back, one to the side, and another to the arm (Atlanta Black Star).
Notably, Deputy Jason Ayala initiated the stop based on an unverified tip about a gun. Bodycam footage showed Lewis complying with orders before being shot—a pattern seen in other Kern County cases (Ground News).
Kern County’s History of Racial Bias in Policing
Sheriff Donny Youngblood faced outrage for a 2006 recording where he allegedly said killing suspects was “financially better” than injuring them. This mindset may explain why deputies refused settlement talks, banking on jury bias (Atlanta Black Star).
Attorney Dale Galipo—who won $33.5M for Nathaniel Pickett’s family in 2015—noted Kern County’s pattern of resisting accountability. The Lewis verdict proves communities will reject racist policing, despite institutional resistance (Law Offices of Dale K. Galipo).
Racial Disparities in Police Killings
Legal Victory Challenges Systemic Injustice
Civil rights attorney Toni Jaramilla called the verdict a “memorial” for Lewis, highlighting how jurors rejected the sheriff’s racist assumptions. The $30.5M award sends a clear message: Black lives matter in courtrooms (Ground News).
However, no amount of money undoes the loss. Lewis’ case joins California’s grim history of police violence against Black men—a history that demands systemic reform, not just payouts (Law Offices of Dale K. Galipo).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Darius Spearman has been a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College since 2007. He is the author of several books, including Between The Color Lines: A History of African Americans on the California Frontier Through 1890. You can visit Darius online at africanelements.org.
