Tentative settlement in Arevalos suit
A tentative settlement has been reached between all parties in the lawsuit involving the on-duty sexual abuse of women by former San Diego police Officer Anthony Arevalos, according to court records.
The deal comes just two weeks before the potentially sensational trial was about to begin in San Diego federal court.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed in the document filed Wednesday, nor by the lawyers in the case.
“The settlement is contingent upon satisfaction of certain conditions and therefore will not become final for at least 90 days,” the document reads. Once the conditions are satisfied, the lawsuit will be dismissed.
Attorneys for the woman who filed the lawsuit said “there are some things to be finalized,” and a joint statement would come later.
The City Council is expected to discuss the settlement at a special closed session next Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed in 2012 by a woman known only as Jane Doe, who is seeking damages from the city of San Diego and Arevalos for her 2011 encounter with the traffic officer in a 7-Eleven bathroom.
Arevalos pulled her over for a traffic violation, then threatened to arrest her for DUI unless she did something for him. He led to her to the bathroom, where he asked for her panties and groped her.
An investigation into the incident found several other women who reported the officer had also solicited them for sexual favors, as well as evidence of a long history of sexual misconduct that included pornographic images on his work computer and pictures of good-looking women he’d pulled over, according to court records.
Arevalos was ultimately convicted of 12 charges relating to Jane Doe and four other women and is serving a sentence of more than eight years in prison.
Jane Doe’s lawsuit went beyond her assault, and alleged there was a culture of secrecy at the San Diego Police Department that fosters such abusive conduct within the ranks. Besides the damages she was seeking for her encounter with Arevalos — an amount that has never been specified publicly — she was also asking for the appointment of an independent outside monitor to oversee the department.
This lawsuit has been a centerpiece of misconduct allegations within the department, as more than a dozen officers besides Arevalos have been arrested or charged with crimes over the past few years — from on-duty rape of a prostitute to drunken driving to sexual assault.
Earlier this year, the department requested an outside audit on its policies and practices in response to the public’s growing concern over continuing misconduct cases. The FBI’s Civil Rights Unit is also conducting a separate criminal investigation into specific incidents involving officers.
The jury trial, set to begin Aug. 12 and last about 21 days, was poised to draw significant media attention.
Numerous current and former SDPD officers were set to testify, and the jury was expected to hear explicit details pertaining to four other women allegedly victimized by Arevalos, before Jane Doe.
One of the cases involved a report of a mentally unstable woman committing a sex act with a baton in Arevalos’ patrol car in 1999. Another officer testified in a deposition that he saw Arevalos appear to take a picture of her naked in the back seat.
The officer says he reported the conduct to Arevalos’ supervisor at the time but the incident never made it into Arevalos’ personnel file. Arevalos’ boss and eight other supervisors were initially included as defendants in the lawsuit, but a judge dismissed them. Jane Doe’s attorneys had been appealing that decision.
Meanwhile, the city was trying to have Jane Doe pay $35,000 for the supervisors’ legal bills.
The city appeared to be building a defense that would question Jane Doe’s lifestyle and undermine her version of events, including a psychological expert who questioned whether Jane Doe was blowing the encounter out of proportion, according to arguments in court.
It is unknown how the tentative settlement came together this week. When the parties met for a motion hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Michael Anello asked if one last formal mediation session would help. The lawyers said no, although Mitchell Dean, a private attorney working on behalf of the city, said the parties had been in regular contact by phone with a mediator.
In January, the City Attorney’s Office said it had tried to make a “generous” offer to Jane Doe but her lawyers wanted an “outrageous” sum. The amount was never disclosed.
Arevalos’ actions have already cost the city a great deal: at least $2.3 million in payouts to a number of other victims.
