CALIFORNIA — A settlement of $17 million was finalized September 29 in the long-running excessive force lawsuit filed by Nakia Porter and her father, Joe Powell, Jr., against Solano County and its sheriff’s deputies. 

The settlement stems from a 2020 incident where Porter claims deputies used brutal force during a roadside stop with her three young children present.

Porter lost consciousness

On August 6, 2020, Porter and Powell were driving from Oakland to Sacramento with Porter’s children and niece in the car. 

Porter, 5’2” and 125 pounds, works as a software engineer. Her father, Powell, spent nearly 30 years in computer operations, including time with NAVAIR.

They pulled over in Solano County to switch drivers, unaware that sheriff’s patrol cars were on Chevron Way nearby. As they parked and changed seats, deputies Lisa McDowell and Dalton McCampbell approached the vehicle — without initiating a traffic stop.

According to the complaint, Porter complied with officers’ requests to “get back in the car,” but deputies escalated the encounter after she asked if they wanted her to go back to the driver’s seat.

The lawsuit says deputies pinned Porter against her car, beat her, pulled her hair, and forced her head into the pavement. Porter reportedly lost consciousness for over five minutes and was later detained.

Relying on false statements from deputies McCampbell and McDowell, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office recommended Porter be prosecuted under Penal Code Section 69 for allegedly obstructing an officer through threat or violence.

Body camera footage later contradicted the deputies’ reports, leading the district attorney’s office to decline prosecution.

Sheriff accused of turning a blind eye

Porter’s attorney Yasin Almadani called the settlement “historic.”

“What happened to Ms. Porter and her family should never happen in our society, which values and respects law and order and the equality and dignity of all people. Having a badge is not a license to abuse and assault the very people that law enforcement agents are sworn to serve and protect,” Almadani said.

Almadani also criticized Solano County Sheriff Thomas Ferrara, accusing him of turning a blind eye and supporting his deputies’ criminal acts.

“So now we know that the sheriff believes that he and his deputies are above the law,” he said.

McCampbell was also named in a 2017 excessive force lawsuit that settled for $14,700 in 2019, and in 2023 he fatally shot a man in Fairfield. McDowell was promoted to sergeant in 2022.

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