The legal aftermath of a deadly DUI traffic stop where a 22-year-old man with a gun in his lap was shot to death by a Pierce County sheriff's deputy continued last month with a lawsuit filed in federal court.
After submitting wrongful death claims to the county earlier this year, the mother of Moses Portillo, Leona Qualey, sued the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, Thomas Dolan — the deputy who shot him — and Sheriff Ed Troyer on July 27 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The suit calls the Jan. 16, 2022, shooting "unnecessary, reckless, negligent and wrongful," and it claims Dolan violated proper police procedure, Sheriff's Department's policies and procedures and Washington Statutory Authority requiring law enforcement officers to use de-escalation in their interactions with the public.
Damages claims filed on behalf of Portillo's estate in advance of this lawsuit sought $10 million from Pierce County. The lawsuit demands a jury trial to determine the amount of damages plaintiffs should be awarded.
A spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which defends the county against lawsuits, said Thursday that the office generally doesn't comment on pending litigation.
Body-worn camera footage of the traffic stop near Puyallup shows Dolan shooting at Portillo 12 times while the man was a backseat passenger in a car. According to police documents, Dolan pulled the car over just before 10 p.m. on Canyon Road East on suspicion of DUI after he saw the vehicle change lanes improperly and noticed the driver's side mirror was cracked.
Previous reporting from The News Tribune showed that according to police records, the traffic stop escalated when Dolan noticed a box of ammunition on the floor of the car, drew his gun and shined a flashlight on a pistol in Portillo's lap. Video showed Dolan shouting for Portillo to put his hands on the ceiling, then opening fire in reaction to upper body movement from Portillo, who was sitting across the backseat with his back to the deputy due to a full-leg cast.
Dolan, then 26, had been with the Sheriff's Department for nearly three years. He told investigators he believed Portillo reached for the pistol in his lap with his right hand to shoot and kill him.
The shooting was deemed "justified and lawful," by deputy prosecuting attorney Dru Swaim in April. She reviewed the Pierce County Force Investigation Team's inquiry of the shooting, and in an April 20 letter to Sheriff Troyer, she wrote that body-worn camera footage showed Dolan tried to de-escalate the incident, but Portillo disregarded commands and lowered a hand toward his lap.
The lawsuit makes three specific claims. The first is related to excessive use of force, the second outlines breaches of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights as a result of the failures of Pierce County policymakers and the third describes how the defendants' negligence in training deputies resulted in the death of Portillo and brought emotional distress on his family.
It was brought by attorneys for Portillo's estate, Daniel Kyler and Mark Melter of Rush, Hannula, Harkins & Kyler, PLLC, according to the complaint. The Tacoma-based firm says it specializes in all areas of personal injury law.
The excessive-force claim states that the defendants violated Portillo's Fourth Amendment rights, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
"Defendants deprived Moses Portillo his life by acting in an unreasonable, reckless, dangerous and violent manner and by shooting Moses Portillo without legal cause of justification," the lawsuit states.
The second claim alleges that Pierce County and Troyer acted with "deliberate indifference" by failing to train the department's deputies, failing to supervise and monitor them and failing to adopt and implement policies for appropriate de-escalation of a scene, detention of a citizen and the use of lethal force.
Portillo's death was a foreseeable consequence of these failures, attorneys for Portillo's estate wrote, considering the failures demonstrated by Dolan. It claims that had the deputy been properly trained, monitored and supervised, Dolan's conduct would have been different.
The lawsuit alleges that Dolan escalated the situation by raising his voice, screaming profanities — "put your [expletive] hands on the ceiling" — and aiming his gun directly behind Portillo's head. It also claims Dolan acted contrary to policy and training by not directing the car's driver to turn the vehicle off and place the keys outside. The suit says the deputy also didn't retreat to his vehicle to wait for backup.
The third claim describes the duties the defendants' allegedly breached, including the exercise of ordinary care in law enforcement activity and following policing procedures in the detention, control, contact, questioning and arrest of citizens.
