Five Years After Violent Arrest, Ballew to Call For Firing of Pasadena Police Officers

A man suing the Pasadena Police Department alleging he was severely beaten by two officers during a traffic stop five years ago will hold a news conference with his attorney to discuss a recent court ruling allowing his federal lawsuit to move forward.

On Nov. 9, 2017, former John Muir High School basketball player Christopher Ballew suffered numerous injuries during the violent arrest. He was detained for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer at a gas station on Fair Oaks Avenue and Woodbury Road by officers Lerry Esparza and Zachary Lujan.

At the press conference Ballew will call on the City to fire the officers according to a statement released on Tuesday.

The officers were working the gang unit five years ago when they saw Ballew driving north on Fair Oaks Avenue and made a U-turn to initiate a traffic stop for excessive tint on his windows.

After the officers confronted Ballew, the incident quickly spiraled out of control.

In cellphone video that emerged later, Ballew, then 21, can be seen wrestling with Esparza and Lujan for control of a police baton, and then being forced to the ground, punched and struck repeatedly with the metal baton while he shouted at the officers to stop as they overpowered him and handcuffed him on the ground.

Ballew was struck on the head several times with fists and on the legs with the metal baton. His head was slammed into the asphalt. He suffered a broken fibula, bloody facial injuries, and deep gashes on his legs.

Pasadena Now reported earlier this month that a federal judge has ruled that a racial discrimination claim in a lawsuit filed by Ballew’s attorney John Burton can proceed.

“Last month United States District Judge Fernando Olguin rejected Pasadena’s motion for summary judgment. He noted that out of 197 documented gang unit traffic stops, 44 percent recorded the race as “black,” 55 percent as “Latino,” and one percent as ‘white,’” according to a statement released by Ballew’s attorney John Burton on Tuesday. “Judge Olguin ruled that Chris Ballew “has put forth sufficient evidence to establish a reasonable inference that the officers’ stop was racially motivated.”

“Defendants’ attempt to rebut plaintiff’s evidence and all the reasonable inferences in support of plaintiff’s equal protection claim is woefully deficient. Indeed, in many respects, plaintiff’s evidence in support of his equal protection claim is undisputed.”

Burton filed the lawsuit against both officers, their supervisor, Sergeant Timothy Bundy, and former Chief of Police Philip Sanchez, as well as the city itself.

Olguin, responding to a motion for summary judgment filed by the City of Pasadena and the other defendants, ruled that there are triable issues, thereby allowing portions of the case to proceed.

“Here, the totality of relevant facts – which include the traffic stop itself, the officers’ testimony, and the expert testimony – support the plaintiff’s contention that Esparza and Lujan stopped him, at least in part, because of his race,” according to an order signed by Judge Olguin.

Treating a suspect differently based on race is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Olguin’s order also says the officers acted unlawfully and violated Ballew’s Fourth Amendment rights.

“In any event, it is clear that Lujan’s and Esparza’s alleged conduct under these circumstances was unlawful, as there is a body of relevant case law sufficient to “put a prudent officer on notice that baton strikes, punches, and other such uses of force against a person who is suspected of minor non-jailable infractions, poses little or no risk to others or police officers, and offers minimal or no resistance, violates that person’s Fourth Amendment right to be free of excessive force, especially when no warning is given and less intrusive forms of force are available.”

Pasadena Now reached out to the Pasadena Police Department initially for comment on the five-year anniversary of the case before learning of the recent ruling. A department spokesperson declined to comment due to the pending litigation.

Since the incident, the department has instituted training on implicit bias and officers consult with a psychologist that explains what goes on in the brain during use-of-force incidents.

Officers are now required to take a procedural justice course.

An investigation cleared Esparza and Zachary in 2021.

At one point during the incident, Ballew grabbed an officer’s baton. Esparza pulled out his gun as Lujan and Ballew struggled for the baton until Ballew released it after he was struck by Lujan.

“When he [Lujan] was holding me down at the back of my neck, I was wondering if I was going to die,” Ballew told the Pasadena Weekly in December 2017. “I kept thinking about the worst thing they could do next and they kept doing it. I could have died. He [Esparza] pulled out the gun, but he didn’t pull the trigger.”